Keeping Warming Center open should be the goal

Cooler heads prevailed at last week's heated Kalispell City Council meeting to review the Flathead Warming Center's conditional use permit.  

After a full-throttled push to renege on the permit that allows the homeless shelter to operate on Meridian Road, the council wisely opted to take its foot off the gas for the time being. 

"Making a binary decision at this point in time would be a rash decision,” Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson said after hearing a flood of public comment over two days, both in support of and against the shelter's permit status. 

Instead, the council gave the Warming Center two months to address complaints expressed by some residents and businesses who suggest the center isn't doing enough to mitigate its effects on the surrounding neighborhood. Detractors have accused the center of promoting loitering, increasing the presence of homelessness and causing an uptick in police calls. 

Hitting the pause button makes sense for all sides: the city, the Warming Center and neighboring residents. 

First, it stops the city from hastily wading into dubious legal waters. 

The city's assertions that the center is violating its conditional use permit mostly lean on public comments. This is a flimsy approach at best and could border on arbitrary without a more substantial offering of evidence that the actual terms of the center's permit have been violated. As we have pointed out in the past, none of the conditions of the permit make mention of any of the assertions presented by the city. 

Pulling a permit without pointing to an actual infraction would be a slippery slope all conditional use permit holders in the city should be wary of. 

Legal issues aside, Mayor Johnson is right to suggest that the Warming Center deserves the opportunity to work out the valid concerns expressed by its neighbors. And in that process, shelter representatives must be careful to not diminish complaints about loitering and increased disturbances as simply collateral damage of operating a homeless shelter. 

Bringing in a mediator to facilitate these discussions from the onset would be prudent, ensuring both sides are given the opportunity to provide feedback and, more importantly, listen. 

The Warming Center offers an important safety net for the community at a time when homelessness is on the rise in Montana. Working toward a solution that minimizes the shelter’s impact on the neighborhood while keeping the vital service intact is the ideal path forward.