Warming Center - Rescind... from Sherry TinsethJudi Funk
From: Sherry Tinseth <sherry.tinseth@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2024 10:09 AM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Subject: EXTERNAL Warming Center- rescind low barrier use. It harms more than helps.
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Flagged
The 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 nowworking 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 Centerwill be from out of the affected area. Theywill repeat
that anyone disagreeingwith them iswithout empathy. Theywant 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.