The Flathead Valley will not have a homeless shelter this winter. The Kalispell City Council voted Monday to revoke a local shelter’s permit to operate.
For months, neighbors of the Flathead Warming Center told council members that the shelter increased the number of unhoused people in the neighborhood. They argue that’s led to property damage and loitering.In a 6-3 vote, members revoked the permit. City Council Member Chad Graham has spearheaded the push to revoke the shelter’s permit. He says it hasn’t lived up to the permit’s conditions.
“The letter to the Kalispell planning board and zoning commission containing incorrect or untruthful statements to gain approval," said Graham.
Graham says the permit requires the shelter to provide transportation for guests out of the neighborhood and to prevent loitering.
Warming Center Executive Director Tanya Horn says the shelter has met all conditions of the permit. She says the shelter can’t provide transportation because the county no longer offers bus service in the area.
She says staff can only control what unhoused people do on shelter property.
“It is an expectation that we are to control behaviors of adults beyond our property. That is impossible. And that expectation is pretty unconstitutional," said Horn
The shelter was due to open in early October.
Horn says the shelter is considering its legal options.
