Harassment on the streets: Homeless individuals share experiences

Kevin Pearson had only been on the streets for a short while before he was brutally beaten. 

Pearson, who was in his mid-20s at the time, was walking along U.S. 2 in front of Smith’s Food and Drug in Kalispell in 2003 when he says five people jumped out of a truck and assaulted him.   

“They threw me to the ground and kicked me in the head over and over and left me for dead,” he said.  

Pearson spent two weeks in the hospital and was shaken up. 

“I was scared [expletive]. I thought I was gonna get five guys beaten down on me every day.” 

He befriended other homeless individuals who taught him how to find sleeping spots and “how to hide in plain sight.” The harassment didn’t stop, though. 

Pearson said a truck driver threatened to run him over and he was approached by a man who offered change, “and when I got closer to him, he hit me with bear spray.”   

A lawsuit filed in federal court earlier this month regarding the operation of a Kalispell shelter claims that anti-homeless sentiment in the last few years has been enflamed by local elected officials. While at the same time, one law enforcement official says there hasn’t been an increase in reports of violence against homeless individuals.  

Still others like Anestia Wildish, 33, who has been unsheltered for around four years, said the past three have been particularly tough due to attacks by young people in their late teens and early 20s.    

“It’s been brutal what has been done to us out here,” she said. “Some of us were sexually assaulted.”    

Wildish said she has had rocks thrown and paintballs shot at her.  

"We can’t trust anybody out here really,” she said. “They say it's the homeless people you have to be afraid of, no it’s really not.”    

Charles Ewing, a homeless individual from Libby who occasionally travels to Kalispell said, “a lot of people want to sleep by a camera or something where they feel safe.” 

Blondie Howell remembers receiving threatening text messages from an unknown number telling her, "they are cleaning up this town and I’ll know when my time is up.” 

“I have had them sit up on the hill long enough to learn my dog’s name and then try to call her up the hill and peg her with rocks. What did my dog ever do?” she said while sitting in the Woodland Park parking lot.  

Kalispell local Ken Selke, 68, fell into homelessness three years ago after two strokes left him unable to work. He has not experienced harassment but said that the Flathead Warming Center’s recent closure may expose more homeless individuals to it.  

“They’re gonna get harassed more and get blamed more,” he said.  

Since Kalispell City Council voted in favor of revoking the low-barrier homeless shelter on North Meridian Road in September, Warming Center leadership has responded with a lawsuit filed in federal court.   

The Warming Center remains open for daytime services every day from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., but overnight stay remains impermissible. 

A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Missoula on Friday will hear the Warming Center’s arguments for a preliminary injunction requesting to reopen the shelter for overnight stay while the lawsuit seeks reinstatement of the permit.  

The national nonprofit public interest law firm Institute for Justice is representing the Warming Center arguing that the city violated state and federal law by stripping the shelter’s vested right to the property after Council authorized its permit in 2020. Litigators assert the homeless shelter was targeted and blamed for homelessness that has been enflamed by the city and statewide housing crunch and dismal mental health services. 

The city is arguing that Council was within its power to revoke the shelter’s permit, which the shelter has no vested right in. It said that allowing the shelter overnight stay, “despite losing the permit, would essentially eliminate the City’s ability to enforce its own code.”  

In the roughly 100-page lawsuit filed by the Institute for Justice, litigators accuse Council of "vilifying the homeless as freeloading outsiders resulted in a wave of deadly violence against the homeless and the unjustified revocation of the Warming Center’s CUP.”  

However, the Kalispell Police Department has not seen an increase in reports of assault or harassment of homeless individuals in the community, wrote Police Chief Jordan Venezio in an email to the Inter Lake. 

While some homeless individuals told the Inter Lake there are some great officers on the force, others said they don’t feel supported by law enforcement when violence is committed against them.  

“The Kalispell Police Department gives no weight when considering criminal charges to whether an individual we are serving is homeless. We serve each community member in the same manner,” Venezio wrote, adding that officers have worked with homeless individuals on safety precautions and how to properly report crimes.  

As part of the lawsuit, Jennifer Ball, a social worker with the Kalispell office of the Montana State Public Defender, detailed that in the summer of 2023, "at least seven of the homeless individuals that I help were assaulted. Some had rocks thrown at them. Some were beaten with rocks and sticks.” One of her clients was beaten so badly that “[h]is injuries were nearly fatal.” 

In her statements included in the lawsuit, Ball said she was almost killed after speaking at a funeral for Scott Bryan, a homeless man who authorities say was murdered outside of a Kalispell gas station last year.  

“A truck ran me down on purpose and nearly struck me in front of several witnesses. It is my belief that the driver intended to injure or intimidate me because of my work with the homeless community,” she says in the suit.  

Kaleb Elijah Fleck has been accused of beating Bryan to death. Fleck pleaded not guilty in July 2023 and again in October after amended charges were filed in the case.  

A former property manager in Kalispell, Kelley Shenefelt personally knew Bryan after he was her tenant for over three years.  

Now an employee at the Warming Center, Shenefelt said Bryan, who suffered from a brain injury, had trouble connecting with most people. But Bryan would often meet homeless individuals at Woodland Park and invite them to his home.  

“He was absolutely amazing, he was sweet,” she recalled. But after repeated complaints from her employer to keep homeless individuals off the property, Shenefelt was told to evict Bryan.  

“He was evicted, and it was literally about three and a half months later that he was killed,” she said.  

Also included in the Warming Center’s complaint was a reference to Flathead County Commissioner’s letter published in January 2023, calling on community members to stop enabling the “homeless lifestyle” and blaming the opening of a low-barrier shelter for an influx of homelessness.  

Approaching two years since its publication, Commissioner Brad Abell recently called it “quite a stretch” that the letter led to increased violence against homeless individuals.  

“I really don’t think it plays a part, especially two years later. Nobody’s going back to that letter,” he said.  

Commissioner Randy Brodehl declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said, “I totally respect [Council’s] willingness and authority to make those decisions.”   

“There’s plenty of people that have needs, and I totally support helping them. The problem is we have people that are not willing to be part of a solution,” he said.  

Brodehl said that the Samaritan House holds people accountable to a standard that the Warming Center fails to do.  

“Where I get crossways a little bit sometimes with the Warming Center is I don’t think they hold them as accountable as a low barrier shelter,” Brodehl said.  

The Warming Center does have its guests create roadmaps for themselves and partner with social services to aid in getting out of homelessness.  

Commissioner Pam Holmquist did not respond to requests for comment.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 406-758-4407 or junderhill@dailyinterlake.com.  

    Ken Selke stands outside of the Flathead Warming Center on Oct. 21, 2024.
  

    Kevin Pearson statnds outside of the Flathead Warming Center on Oct. 21, 2024.