Kalispell City Council forges ahead with effort to amend or revoke homeless shelter's permit

Kalispell City Council is moving forward with an effort to potentially alter or revoke the Flathead Warming Center’s conditional use permit following reported neighborhood concerns.

The decision was made during a Tuesday night work session, the second such gathering Council had organized on the low-barrier overnight shelter on North Meridian Road in recent weeks. 

The request to review the Warming Center’s permit came from Councilor Chad Graham in April, who argued that the shelter has not followed through on promises made during the application process.

“The proof has been in the pudding … we had assertions on how it was going to operate and fit into the community that the community is telling us hasn’t happened,” Mayor Mark Johnson said Tuesday. 

Council will now host a formal hearing, which City Manager Doug Russell said would probably occur in around a month, to give the Flathead Warming Center a chance to respond to the concerns raised. *

Those concerns were laid out by Graham on Tuesday. He accused the Warming Center of increasing homelessness in the area, promoting loitering, proved unaccountable to members of the wider neighborhood and prompting a bump in law enforcement activity.

“I think that there was some embellishment there,” Graham said of the Warming Center’s original application, which was filed in 2020. 

After Warming Center personnel have a chance to formally respond to the concerns, Council will decide whether to move forward with amending or revoking the permit. 

Councilors Ryan Hunter and Jessica Dahlman were the only two against moving forward and reviewing the permit further. The pair questioned whether an increase in homelessness could be attributed to the Warming Center. 

“I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that the conditional use permit is the thing that has caused the entire issue with the homeless here in Kalispell,” Dahlman said. 

While she believes that resident concerns need to be addressed, she said that she doesn’t think revoking the permit is the right thing to do. 

“I feel like [the Warming Center] is wanting to be a part of the answer to this problem,” she said. “...I feel like we should give them a chance.” 

Hunter has been outspoken in support of the shelter in recent weeks, arguing that removing the shelter would only make the homelessness worse by putting more people on the streets at night. 

Rather than revoking the permit, Hunter suggested implementing community solutions, such as constructing more public bathrooms, clean water outlets, trash cans and getting a working group together to address the issue, which was suggested months ago to no avail.

“If we remove the [conditional use permit], that is going to be 50 more people every night that are going to be seeking a place to sleep,” Hunter said. “And they aren’t going to have it.”

Other members of Council fell in behind Graham, although some with hesitancy. 

Councilors Sandy Carlson and Kari Gabriel have both remained quiet on the topic over recent weeks, yet both stated their support of a further review of the permit Tuesday night. 

“This is my neighborhood,” Gabriel said. “... The impacts to my neighbors have been really real and it did not exist before 2020.” 

The Warming Center opened in 2021 after securing its conditional use permit from the city to operate on North Meridian Road. 

Gabriel said the city owes it to the neighborhood to move forward with a hearing. 

Carlson expressed similar concerns, saying that she works in the area. In the past couple of years, she said she has witnessed fights, break-ins and has had to call the police at times. She also voiced support for the hearing. 

Councilors Sid Daoud and Sam Nunnelly likewise expressed support for moving forward with the process. 

Councilor Jed Fisher said that if Kalispell “[cares] that much as a community” they should reach out to homeless individuals and “bring them in.” A bed to rest in is not going to save someone from homelessness, he said. 

“I think it’s overwhelming, it’s not the right neighborhood, the rules have not been followed,” Fisher said.

RESIDENTS AND Warming Center supporters got a chance to weigh in following Council’s discussion.

Luke Heffernan, chair and co-founder of the Flathead Warming Center, said that the first step to addressing homelessness is avoiding falsehoods. 

“There are legitimate concerns that I am sorry about but there is also a lot of falsehood … between the biases and the misconceptions, what is truth?” Heffernan said. 

In 2019, cold weather killed three homeless residents on the streets of Kalispell, he said. Their deaths contributed to the shelter’s creation. He reiterated that the Warming Center has rules and guidelines for guests, does not support criminal activity and wants to help address neighborhood concerns. 

“Honestly, we need the community’s help instead of blame,” Heffernan said. 

Rod Tinseth, of Tinseth & Associates on North Meridian Road, acknowledged that most neighbors and nearby businesses opposed the Warming Center from the start. While some of the early problems have improved, Tinseth argued that was because business owners have been forced to adjust. 

They shouldn’t have to do that, he said. 

“I don’t have all of the solutions but I do know that we are a solutions-oriented, open-hearted community,” said Mandy Gerth. 

Gerth, who is director of the Kalispell Heart Program, said she works with homeless individuals daily. She said that youth and children also use the Warming Center, among other individuals who don’t fit into the “chronically homeless” stereotype. 

Youth and children homelessness is up 10% nationwide, she said. In Flathead County, the number is up by 20%. Closing the Warming Center would only add to the problem, she said.

“I think we have an opportunity for remediation with the Warming Center,” she said. 

Others argued that the Warming Center left the community vulnerable to outside threats. Kalispell resident Ruth Probert wondered how many “terrorists” were in the valley looking for free food and a place to stay.

“There are very evil people who will take advantage of that as a stepping stone to get where they’re going,” she said. 

Colton Little, a student and Independent candidate for House District 5, spoke in support of the Center, while acknowledging that other solutions needed to be found. 

“The vast majority of [homeless individuals] are not too different from us,” he said, citing his own experience with family members who have been unhoused.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.

* This paragraph was updated to accurately state when the future meeting will happen.