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Homelessness Public Comment from Kiera SmithKiera Smith 462 5th Avenue E N Kalispell, MT 59901 (406) 291-1011 kas2006taicloud.com 15 December 2023 Kalispell City Council P.O Box 1997 Kalispell, MT 59903 Dear Mayor Johnson and City Council Members, My name is Kiera Smith. I am a student at Linderman, who is less than a year from turning 18. 1 am very close to becoming a voting citizen and I want to address and possibly help with some suggestions on what can help the homeless crisis here. I full heartedly want you to open your eyes to the people in this valley and look at how we can help them. Try to imagine this. You or a loved one lost a home. You or a loved one could not afford necessities. You or a loved one struggled trying to find a roof over your head. It sounds awful, right? Yet it is a continuous crisis in America and a growing crisis in our own Flathead County. Even for those of us privileged enough to struggle to imagine this situation, we can see this happening at an increasing rate around us and it is our job as individuals and as a community to work to create a county where all people are able to thrive. People in Kalispell are struggling to keep going. Many are out on the streets, living in anything they can find, and struggling to keep up. A number of them from all over the valley are being transported to the only nearby resource which is our town. They are put off to the side to be dealt with later. Right now we need to finally show care, take action, and fight this crisis. In order to prevent and help homeless people in Kalispell, Montana as anywhere, it is important to give the people what they need. This includes equity, government plans, and communities collaborating together to provide more opportunities for people in tough spots. One place to start would be to make more accessible housing, create programs, and accumulate more strategies in order to aid people who don't have a stable roof over their heads. There needs to be an increase in available and affordable housing for lower class people for sure. Times are very hard these days and it is very hard to find stability. According to the US Interagency Council on Homelessness, "Strategies such as increasing availability of and access to affordable and accessible and housing assistance and addressing housing discrimination that perpetuate disparities are both critical to preventing homelessness and are addressed in the Scale Up Housing and Supports pillar" (Prevent Homelessness"). It is very important that we urgently address how unfair the systems in place are, and how difficult they make life on people with lower incomes. There are not many homes here, especially in an affordable price range. There are people out there working everyday trying their very best to save and get by yet are unsuccessful due to there being no equity in place. The Montana data about homelessness gathered the following information in the chart below. 75% 37% 0 0 Sheltered Individuals 49R • unshettzred Indviduals 69% Sheltered People -n Foma:es UnsheltereY. People in Farm I, es An Pecpla n Families individuals The above pie charts show the numbers in 2018 of the unsheltered people in Montana. Imagine how much those number have increased to now. Five years later and there is still no change. Creating affordable and easy to access homes would be a great way to start. These numbers will only continue to grow if something is not done to address the issue. The main reason for the homeless crisis is people are trying to get homes yet running into too many barriers. They are not able to afford anything especially in this economy. The first step is increasing homes that aid to people with lower incomes. There are ways to'do this by creating more programs and helping. In addition to housing, there needs to be way more services and programs in the valley for people who are unhoused and a great place to start would be with building incentives to create more low income properties, fundraising events to help create funds and budgets, grants, shelter options for families, and counselors for support and help with saving plans as well. A November 5th article in the Daily Inter Lake titled "The Flathead Valley cities grapple with a lack of service for homeless people," states that "There is currently no date set for a county -wide discussion regarding the issue. Many service providers and community members look forward to the possibility, however, because the valley needs to work together to target the issue, the executive director of the Flathead warming center in Kalispell Tonya Horn said." Again in this recent article, we learn that "the reality is that there needs to be more services everywhere for unhoused people" (Hetson). There is clearly not enough help in the valley for people in need of housing. We all can do a lot more to aid the situation. We need to begin pulling people together and creating more programs. Things like grants, building more low income housing, or creating more shelter options full of supplies would be amazing. According to the US interagency Council on Homelessness some of the most important steps to take in countering homelessness are to keep people who do have homes in them by doing the following: • legal services • protection and advocacy services • independent living services • elder rights • housing counseling services. • Increase on-the-job training and apprenticeship opportunities • support employment for low-income households most at risk of becoming homeless This plan could really improve things here in the valley and it talks about mainly implementing a ton of programs. There is not enough help being given, and we need to start boosting people up. We need to give people a fresh start and provide them the resources they need. Lastly, more strategic planning on what our next steps are dealing with this crisis is a must. Strategies being put in place will give more structure to this plan and making it possible. We need to come together as a community and come up with more ways of helping. It is crucial that each affected group of people have a voice, and that means listening to people on the streets, or in transition housing, shelter representatives, building associations, council members all over the valley, as well as care managers who have been up close and personal with the situation. According to the Daily Inter Lake article on homelessness "Chief Jordan Venzio Smith also said it was important to approach the subject with empathy, decency, and an honest desire to address the root causes of the situation" I agree with our Chief of Police when he says that "We need to stop going back and blaming other jurisdictions or individuals for the problem. We need to move forward" (Hetson). The root cause is there needs to be more people being pulled out of homelessness. The community needs to start working together. A lot of people talk about it, but aren't urgently addressing the issue like it needs to be. The US Interagency Council on Homelessness states that The overall number of people experiencing homelessness will only go down if more people exit homelessness than enter it. Ending homelessness requires working on both fronts —rehousing people who are already homeless while preventing people from becoming homeless in the first place. This pillar focuses on upstream, universal prevention approaches that will require an all -hands -on -deck effort across government to broadly reduce the risk of housing instability for households most likely to experience homelessness (Prevent Homelessness). We all need to work together and start showing that we care. Working together is going to be very beneficial. Right now it is important that we plan what is next. There are many things that need to be done. Everyday that goes by, more and more people are being left with little to no hope. Efforts to stop this problem need to focus on both helping people get homes and preventing cycles of homelessness. When it comes to housing in Kalispell, affordability is our number one goal. It opens so much more accessibility. Service and programs that help people stay in the homes they do have are an absolute must as well. Most importantly, though, we need to take some action as a whole and work out what other things we could do and plan together. Remember what I asked you to imagine at the beginning of this letter. Imagine all the shoes that you could be in. Try to picture what it would be like for you out in those streets. You've been trying to save for years, barely able to afford food, panicking the moment you run out of something, people constantly judging you, and experiencing harsh such rough temperatures you just want to die. Show citizens of this town that there is so much more that life has to offer them rather than just any scraps they can get. Show them there are hands to reach out to. Please show them that you care. Today, please gather city council members from all over the valley in a meeting and discuss your next step to help alleviate the stresses that people who are unhoused live with. talk to the people in the streets, transitional housing, and in low income neighborhoods. Sincerely, Kiera Smith References 1 Used Hetson, Kate. "Flathead Valley Cities Grapple with a Lack of Services for Homeless People."." Daily Inter Lake, 5 Nov. 2023, pp. A1-8. "Montana." National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2018, endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics /state-of-homelessness-report/montana/. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023. "Prevent Homelessness." Www.usich.gov, 19 Dec. 2022, www.usich.gov/federal-strategic-plan/prevent-homelessness. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.