Warming center Public Comment from Leanette GalazDear Kalispell Mayor and City Council,
I am writing urging that the Kalispell City Council NOT revoke the Flathead Warming Center permit, and instead spend time and energy collaborating with the many different organizations
working to SOLVE the housing crisis, mental health and substance use crisis. Revoking the Flathead Warming Center’s permit may placate the neighbors for a short time, win some political
favor, but in the end this will harm our Valley as a whole.
I have family members who, without family support, would have been or could be homeless. I have friends who have been or are homeless. There is no bus dropping them off. The folks using
the center are from here and this is a community that believes in both personal responsibility and looking out for each other. Many patrons of the center have jobs, but as I and many
others know, jobs right now pay barely enough to afford rent. It sucks and I wish it were different, but we can’t simply wish this problem away.
The Flathead Warming Center is a PIVOTAL player in helping people get the help they need and get back into housing. In fact the Kalispell City Council should be lifting up the work
that the Warming Center is doing to get people back into housing. People experiencing homelessness are not all the same, and the culmination of an insane rise in housing costs, a defunding
of mental health care, a loss of addiction services, and more are why we see a rise in numbers of people experiencing a housing crisis. Tonya said it best when she said blaming the
center for homelessness is like blaming an oncologist for cancer. It’s stupid.
We are not the first area to see rising homelessness, and the demonization of homelessness allows people to separate themselves from the very issues that need to and can be solved.
The Council should instead lobby their state and federal representatives to push for policies that increase housing supply, increase access to mental health and addiction services in
the Flathead Valley! Stand up for SOLUTIONS and say NO to revoking the Flathead Warming Center’s permit.
Sincerely,
Leanette Galaz,
Columbia Falls