Flathead Warming Center Conditional Use Permit Public Comment from Martha VanSickleAimee Brunckhorst
From: Marthe VanSickle <vansicklem@aclumontana.org>
Sent: Monday, July 15, 2024 3:56 PM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Cc: Legal Intern
Subject: EXTERNAL Flathead Warming Center Conditional Use Permit
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Dear City Council Members,
We are writing today to urge you to allow the Flathead Warming Center to continue to operate under their
conditional use permit as currently permitted. Kalispell and Flathead County need the supportive
services that the Warming Center offers. As the City knows these services are literally lifesaving. We are
asking you to have compassion for community members who do not currently have the opportunity that
we have to be safe in our homes from the brutal winters in Montana.
It is important first to acknowledge that homelessness is predominantly caused by a lack of affordable
housing in communities. The ultimate solution to homelessness is affordable housing. We hope you can
agree that every community member deserves a safe place to exist.
We recognize that a Kalispell where everyone has a roof over their head is not going to happen tomorrow.
That is exactly why the City needs to support community members by maintaining as many supportive
services as possible like the Warming Center. Until cities can reduce homelessness through adequate
housing, shelters and warming centers are critical interim solutions.
The Flathead Warming Center doesn'tjust keep people alive in the winter, although that is a noble cause.
The Warming Center connects community members to critical resources that help them get into stable
housing which will inevitably reduce homelessness in Kalispell.
Please keep the conditional use permit in place for the Flathead Warming Center. Remember that the
center is serving community members who need the support most. Where the City Council and
community would like to see improvements, we urge the City to consider opportunities to support and
expand existing resources, rather than taking away lifelines for Kalispell community members who are at
their most vulnerable. Moving the problem and its impacts elsewhere serves no one.
We implore you to listen to impacted voices today at the council meeting and take what they say to heart.
Please remember that many of us are a life event or two away from being unhoused ourselves because of
the housing crisis in Montana.
Best regards,
Marthe VanSickle, Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Montana
Caelin Marum, Legal Intern at the ACLU of Montana
Marthe VanSickle I Staff Attorney
(pronouns she/her)
ACLU of Montana
P.O. Box 1968, Missoula, MT 59806
(4o6) 204-0288
https://www.facebook.com/actumontana/
https://twitter.com/ACLUMT
https://www.instagram.com/actuofmontana/
WMU
Montana
BLACK LIVES MATTER
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