Flathead Warming Center Public Comment from Andrew SappingtonAimee Brunckhorst
From: Andrew Sappington <androcules@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2024 8:17 AM
To: Kalispell Meetings Public Comment
Subject: EXTERNAL Flathead Warming Center
It is our wish as a family, trying to save our neighborhood from the summer residents of the warming
center, to express our thanks to members of the council that are working hard to keep our city safe.
My hope and dream is that my last three remaining children, and future grandchildren, will be able to play
safely in our front yard, use the library, walk downtown, ride/walk the rails to trails, and safely play in our
city parks.
We as a family fully support the services in the valley that give a hand up not a hand out. The Samaritan
House, Flathead Food Bank, and A Ray of Hope are all organizations that require people to be
accountable and too want to make changes in their lives. These organizations strive to improve our city
and they take responsibility for their people. This is a part of a healthy vibrant city. Helping one another
to improve all of our lives in the city.
What is not part of a healthy vibrant city is an organization, The Warming Center, that does not hold itself
accountable for the people using its services. At the last meeting they claimed that they are only
responsible for what happens 150 feet from their doors.That is something that I have NEVER heard from
any of the above three mentioned services.{ In fact, it is a testimony to the high standards that the
Samaritan House holds its residents to that it can operate right next to a school}, The warming center is
not Vegas. What happens there does not stay there. It reverberates throughout the WHOLE city. Every
neighborhood, park, library, and business is impacted everyday. Whether it be the loitering, sleeping in
parks, taking over the library, harassing people downtown, sleeping in our neighborhoods, needles in the
parks, on the traits................On and on. We as residents and citizens see it everyday with zero
accountability from the Warming Center.
Homeless people are not stupid. They have phones and they know where to go to get services WITHOUT
accountability. The information is a click away. They know that they would never be able to get services
from organizations that are helping people improve their lives. The majority of the people using The
Warming Center are people that cannot or will not improve their lives. This is not the direction we want
our city to go. Do we want to be another Missoula? That city is a crap show. They spend Millions of
taxpayer money to fix people that don't want to be fixed.
For the love of everything good about our city please shut down The Warming Center. Allow the
neighborhoods, parks, trails, and businesses to become safe once again. Allow us as mothers and
fathers, in the city, to raise our children in peace and without fear. We want to use the library, parks,
trails,and downtown. We want to improve our city and live in peace like other residents of the valley get
to enjoy.
We firmly believe that the patrons of the Warming Center will move on from our city and will land in a
place that caters to their need to be taken care of with no accountability. This will allow all of us to focus
our resources on organizations that are humanly meeting the needs of local people that want to better
themselves and become a vibrant part of our community.
Thankyou, The Sappington family