Homeless individuals grapple with Warming Center shut down

After Anestia Wildish was evicted from her home in 2020 at the onset of the pandemic she anticipates the upcoming winter will be her third unsheltered.  

The 33-year-old had a blanket, and various bags tucked behind a bush in Woodland Park along with a dog named Maddy recently as she shared her experience. Her two children are currently under her mother’s care. 

Wildish recalled her first winter outside on days when the temperatures dropped below zero. 

“My friends would alternate nights at the Warming Center to come out with me,” she said. “I managed. My dog stayed warm at all times.” 

She began using the Flathead Warming Center’s services last year, staying overnight and attending weekly meetings. 

“It’s very resourceful and they do help you out with a lot of things if you actually want to change your life around,” she said.   

However, with the recent decision by Kalispell City Council to revoke the Warming Center’s conditional use permit it remains uncertain where homeless individuals like Wildish will find shelter this winter.  

Councilors who voted to revoke the permit argued that the low-barrier shelter reneged on promises made in its permit application, including being a good neighbor. 

Dozens of neighbors and nearby business owners who attended meetings leading up to the decision cited disturbances and safety issues including public defecation, drug use, loitering and trespassing on private property by shelter guests, although no names were provided. 

Councilors who opposed revocation argued that the shelter abided by conditions stipulated and were unfairly expected to address issues of homelessness felt county and statewide. One voiced skepticism that the city could legally take away the shelter’s permit four years after accepting it referencing a memo with a legal opinion from the City Attorney to Council. 

The Inter Lake filed a records request for the memo but was denied the memo due to the city saying the document is held under attorney-client privilege.  

The Warming Center expects Monday to be the last day it will provide services including showers, laundry and lunch, but Executive Director Tonya Horn said in a recent interview with the Inter Lake that the revocation process has not been communicated by the city.  

“The process has not been clear to us at all, and it’s still not clear to us,” Horn said. “We are hopeful for a short-term solution to continue to have services for the most vulnerable in our community.” 

Horn said that leadership and the shelter’s legal team were “looking at all our options,” but hired attorney Michelle Weinberg has addressed Council in the past arguing that revocation would violate the shelter’s constitutional right and may lead to litigation.  

The number of homeless individuals residing in Kalispell to Ronan was 199 in winter of 2024, according to a Point-in-Time count conducted by the Montana Continuum of Care Coalition. Of the 199 recorded in the count, 66 were considered chronically homeless.  

THOSE NOT outspokenly present at the Council meeting were homeless individuals.  

John Wingwessels used the Warming Center last winter during below freezing days and was one among several unsheltered individuals frustrated with council’s decision to shut down the shelter. 

“What’s the point of cultivating something and it being successful if it’s going to get abandoned?” he said.  Wingwessels grew up in the valley, attending Muldown Elementary School in Whitefish.  

“Yeah we have a couple of bad eggs, but we are trying to fix that,” said Kassie O’Hair, a homeless individual who raised her children in Kalispell. She has not been to the Warming Center, but said it was a needed service that has helped some of her friends turn their lives around.  

Blondie Howell, who was evicted by her landlord and now homeless, has not been to the shelter but said “shutting down the Warming Center takes away the one safe spot that the homeless people have to go.” 

West McMillan has lived in Kalispell since 1969 and has been homeless for the past seven years.  The 62-year-old used the Warming Center in the past but does not have a plan for the approaching winter.  

“Maybe leave, we’ll see,” he said. “It’s getting harder for me to handle it.”   

McMillan said that he has seen problematic guests at the Warming Center but disagreed with neighbor complaints.  

“Most of the people that stay there just walk by the neighborhood,” he said. “They don’t stick around.” 

SOME OPTIONS remain for those seeking shelter and meals.  

The Samaritan House, which offers nightly shelter for around 45 people, has 19 longer-term transitional housing units and 32 low-income permanent apartments.  

The shelter’s veteran program provides affordable housing to homeless United States veterans.  

“A larger percentage of Montanans are veterans to the rest of the United States. And that also filters down to our homeless,” shelter Executive Director Chris Krager said.  

A case management staff is present to meet with shelter clients on an intimate level and track progress from nightly shelter to transitional housing and eventually out of homelessness, which 84% do, according to Krager.  

Like the Warming Center, the Samaritan House operates under a conditional use permit and has been for over 20 years.  

“My [conditional use permit] was really, really well written,” Krager said. “We received 100 percent support from the City Council.” 

Krager said that the shelter received very few concerns during the public comment portion of the application process.  

Declining to comment on the Warming Center’s permit revocation, Krager said that “as always, the Samaritan House will rise to the occasion, and we will shelter anybody we need to.” 

The Samaritan House held a groundbreaking ceremony last week on its nearly $17 million project to expand its service.  

A Ray of Hope, a nonprofit founded in 1988, operates men, women and children’s transitional and sober living facilities in Kalispell.  

Fundraising and Outreach Coordinator Wayne Appl said a background check is run on every guest and the shelter requires daily breathalyzer tests and random urinalysis.  

People stay “anywhere from two weeks to two years,” Appl said. “As long as they’re moving forward.”  

The women and children’s facility houses up to 18 people and is always full with a waiting list to get in, according to Appl. The 12 beds in the men’s house are also repeatedly full.  

Operating under a conditional use permit as well, Appl said “the City Council has been very good to us ... We have a really good reputation in town, so they were more apt to help us out.”  

Appl said he is not worried about the shelter’s conditional use permit being revoked.  

“We are very cognizant of what is expected of us,” he said.  

In a poll conducted by Krager and other homeless shelter directors across the state, Krager found that 70% of people being served are from the ZIP code where the shelter is located, which is the same for the Samaritan House.  

“The other 30 percent that may be from another location, man, it feels good to serve them too,” Krager said, noting that falling into homelessness is often the biggest crisis a guest has ever experienced.  

Wildish said she has lived in the Flathead Valley her entire life.  

“I grew up on a dairy farm in Columbia Falls,” she said. “Majority of us are from here, or from Montana somewhere.”   

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at junderill@dailyinterlake.com and 406-758-4407.