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Brief from the Flathead Warming Ctr to Council re 5/13 work sessionJudi Funk From: Steve Snipstead<steve.snipstead@faithkalispelI.org> Sent: Monday, May 6, 2024 12:21 PM To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment Subject: EXTERNAL Brief from the Flathead Warming Center to the City Council in regard to the May 13th Work session Attachments: Brief to Kalispell City Council.docx [NOTICE: This message includes an attachment -- DO NOT CLICK on links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe.] To our Mayor and City Council, Attached is a letter outlining a few thoughts and suggestions put together by the board and staff of the Flathead Warming Center. These are some of the issues we think should be discussed at the May 13t" work session. We recognize that the population we serve presents challenges that are difficult to address. Our desire is to listen well and discover what we can do improve the situation, and create a better environment for our city. Sincerely, Stephen R. Snipstead, FWC Board Member Warming Center Brief to Kalispell City Council The goal of this brief is to ecourage a healthy and productive dialogue between the Flathead Warming Center and the City of Kalispell. We welcome further questions, the sharing of information, and ideas. The format of this letter is to address a specific issue by offering information and clarifications from our perspective that we feel may be helpful and offer some proposals for future discussion. Issues Complaints from Neighbors: General Response We don't keep a record of complaints that are communicated to us. We respond to issues that we are made aware of as they arise. Complaints this winter season have included guests walking / standing on our direct neighbors' business property. When we were made aware, we initiated immediate contact with the individual and in most cases, the individual forfeited their stay at the Warming Center for being in violation of our Occupancy Agreement. We received a complaint this season regarding a spitting incident discussed below. Most of the complaints reported in the news and social media, "Being spat on, loitering in front of business and sidewalks, confrontations such as screaming and threatening actions, feces on front doorsteps of homes and businesses, sleeping on property, customers feeling unsafe and needing to be escorted," were also voiced by the neighbors at our initial informational meeting as already occurring in this neighborhood and given as reasons for not locating the FWC at a location that already had trouble with homelessness. We respond to the best of our ability to complaints that are reported to us and we communicate directly with neighbors in our vicinity. We hand deliver notices to our neighbors between each season closing/ opening. Each letter encourages to communication and includes our Executive Director's personal cell number. Each letter invites our neighbors to come visit to learn who we are, who we serve, and how we serve individuals. From our perspective it was a quiet season. We have not heard from those in the immediate neighborhood often. Proposal: We will start recording complaints from the neighborhood and reviewing our response. When the Warming Center first opened we were able to talk to our neighbors and find out the specifics of when, where, and who were the bad actors and address the issues by working together with the people experiencing the problem. We will take a more proactive stance in communicating with our neighbors by increasing our contacts with our immediate neighbors at the opening, middle and end of the season. We will encourage people experiencing issues in the vicinity of the Warming Center to discuss their complaints with us. We will actively encourage our nearby neighbors to reach out to us with their concerns. This incident of a man getting spit on: An individual familiar to us came to the Center in the middle of the afternoon. Warming Center Staff instructed him that based on our Occupancy Agreement, he could not be on property prior to 5:30pm. The male individual left upset and went over to the Boot and Saddle Shop. The manager came out of the shop. There was a verbal argument and the Warming Center guest spat in the manager's face. The manager called law enforcement and then called the shelter. Warming Center staff immediately responded by informing the individual that he was in violation of our Occupancy Agreement and not welcomed back at the Warming Center. Staff apologized repeatedly to the Manager and encouraged him to press charges. The Warming Center Manager on -call called the Boot and Saddle Manager that day and the next business day, the Executive Director also called the Boot and Saddle Manager. This is the only spitting incident we can recount. We actively teach our guests the importance of being a good neighbor and that anyone found doing otherwise will forfeit their bed and their right to access our services. Each person using FWC agrees to an occupancy agreement that requires our guests are to be good neighbors. We want to hear from any of our neighbors about individuals who are causing problems in the area. We would gladly work with law enforcement or other agencies to improve in this area. People Loitering on the sidewalk and around the Warming Center: We responded to our south neighbor's concern of the line forming from the sidewalk in front of the shelter, spilling over into their business driveway by adjusting the line to be allowed to form on our property at 5:30pm. It was our intent and still is our desire to provide transportation to those seeking shelter at FWC. That was made harder by the changes adopted by Flathead County Public Transportation. What was once a free bus service accessed by a simple phone call now requires passengers to pay a fee by using a smart phone with an app that can be linked to a bank account or gift card. This puts bus service out of reach for many people using the Warming Center to ride the bus. The result is more people walking to the shelter. The FWC was still able to bus people to and from the shelter, but only because FWC pays Flathead County Transportation for each trip. We were recently informed that starting next winter season Flathead County Transportation will no longer serve shelters or daycares. Proposal: Over the summer we will research and seek to develop alternative transportation for people coming to and from the Warming Center. Increased Police Calls in our Neighborhood General Response: We don't believe shelters cause homelessness, but we do acknowledge that shelters concentrate the homeless population. In order to respond to the reports of increased calls in our area of the city, we will need to know details of the police reports or the specifics of the complaints council members have heard. We look forward to more information and future dialogue with interested parties. It has been our goal to work with first responders by providing a place to bring people in distress. We believe this is an important resource for our entire community. In the last two seasons, first responders, primarily KPD or KFD, brought people to the shelter more than 225 times. Some of the people dropped off were either in a state we are not equipped to support, or they were unable to uphold our Occupancy Agreement and therefore could not stay on property. In some of those cases, the police had to be called to come back and remove those individuals from Warming Center property. This is one such scenario: After almost a year in the detention center, a new guest that was unknown to us was brought to the Warming Center upon his release. His first night in shelter the individual was comforted in his symptoms of mental illness by staff increasing their nightly rounds in the bunkroom. However, the second night the individual started a fire outside, inside our fence area. When asked to stop and leave the individual refused. Law enforcement was called. We believe this individual would have caused issues in our city no matter where he was released. While we greatly regret that an officer was injured, the results may have been much worse if the incident had not taken place within the structure and supervision of the Warming Center. Proposal: Improve our communication with law enforcement and our neighbors to identify individuals who are responsible for issues in our area. Make these problem individuals a high priority and address their behavior appropriately. The Perception that shelters are driving the increase in the homeless population in our community Our records show that the guests using the FWC are primarily locals. In the 2023- 24 season, 320 unique individuals stayed at the warming center. 70% had lived in the Flathead Valley for more than a year. Of the other 30%, 2/3rds have family or prior connection to the Flathead Valley. We have more data on the population we serve and how we address their needs we can share with the council and are willing to discuss what other information we could collect that the council would find useful. We also recognize that the homeless population is not homogenous. The demographics of the population using the Warming Center may differ from the unhoused population who will not or cannot use the facilities of the Warming Center and other shelters. Addressing this group will likely take a different approach than the current existing shelter models. Incidents are occurring throughout Kalispell by individuals we do not know, or based on our measures of accountability, can no longer be served inside the Warming Center. Yet, many times these individuals are seen as connected to FWC. Proposal: Survey the homeless population not using the Warming Center/ and shelter services to better understand the unsheltered population and how the varied issues they present could be addressed. Proposal: Build and staff places to house those who can't or won't use shelter services, such as mental health stabilization facility, detox facility, a structured outdoor living space, and other facilities that can serve those who can't self -regulate. We look forward to hearing from the council and working together to address these issues.