Warming Center- rescind low barrier use_ It harms more than helps_Sherry TinsethThe low barrier Warming Center attracts larger numbers of drug and alcohol addicts to Kalispell than would otherwise be here. Many by train (Whitefish) and much of its funding from Whitefish
as well. Whitefish does not allow low barrier facilities and neither should Kalispell.
I was surprised when a councilman stated that Tanya Horn doesn't hear complaints from the community. That is absolutely false. I and others have contacted her multiple times. She acts
as if I am the only person calling, AND she says we should ask these people their names!? They are generally not in conversation mode. If kicked out, will they retaliate? I have given
up calling. Her credibility is shot by her denial of our complaints. I do not believe her claims these are local people. Prove it! I distrust her management of this facility all together.
The affect is not limited to 150 ft of the center for only a few months a year as Tanya would like us to think. Kalispell public areas, library and city parks no longer feel safe. People
feel unsafe in public parks and in their own homes. Kalispell is becoming a slum. Panhandlers and vagrants sleeping or yelling obscenities in public. My husband and I were verbally
threatened by the library after the May 13th meeting by a man across the street at the Hockaday Center shouting he was a killer. A homeless man killed the manager at fuel fitness a
couple of years ago. Scary things happen more and more often through out the city all year long and we attribute much of it to the Warming Center's mostly adult male population- who
are enabled by the low barrier expectations of the Center to live a lifestyle of drug and alcohol abuse. Example - clean needle exchange was mentioned and was not denied by Mr. Horn
in his defense of Tanya later in the evening of the 13th meeting. Low barrier encourages more need of the facility, more beds, more money and more taxes for emergency services.
The guests have caused us much personal concern and I have seen them harass the ladies in the coffee stand near the center. Needles, and human excrement, are found on public and private
property and many have witnessed sex and shooting up outside of their homes and in neighborhood parks. AND- They are now working to triple the size of the center and triple the damage
to.
I expect the people at the May 28th meeting, who support the warming Center will be from out of the affected area. They will repeat that anyone disagreeing with them is without empathy.
They want the homeless to have shelter but not in their neighborhood!
The Warming Center has not met its own low barrier standard as set by its charter. It causes more risk to more people than it actually helps. What happens when an innocent child steps
on a dirty needle in a city park? Low barrier use will only increase risk and liability for the city of Kalispell and it's voters.
Rescind the low barrier use.