Last month, the Kalispell City Council revoked the Flathead Warming Center’s permit because neighbors and businesses argued the shelter increased crime and the presence of homeless people.
At a press conference outside the shelter, its director Tonya Horn rejected that argument.
“If you think that we enable people with shelter here at the Warming Center, that is because you don’t know us, and you don’t know the people that we serve.”
She says people will die if the shelter isn’t able to open its doors this winter. They offer 50 beds per night and often turn people away because they’re full.
Jeff Rowes is an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a national law firm that seeks out cases that can set national legal precedent. Rowes says this case is the next frontier after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in the Grants Pass case. That allowed cities to ban sleeping in public.
“If the government can criminalize sleeping on public property, the city of Kalispell can’t destroy the rights of private property owners to shelter the homeless on their private property at night,” Rowes says.
The case is filed in the U.S. District Court in Missoula. Rowes argues the city council’s decision is unconstitutional on many grounds. He says the city council didn’t follow a set process to revoke the shelter’s permit and that it arbitrarily treated the shelter differently than other private property owners because it serves homeless people.
The shelter is asking the court for an emergency order that will allow it to stay open while the case plays out. That decision could happen within the next week.
Rowes expects the case to take a year or more and says he’s prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary.
Kalispell City Manager Doug Russell declined to comment, citing the litigation.
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It’s been a week since a Kalispell homeless shelter reopened its doors for overnight stays. A judge ruled the shelter can operate while the larger case over its permit plays out. Montana Public Radio’s Aaron Bolton talked to people benefiting from a warm bed.
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A homeless shelter in Kalispell has reopened its doors after the city shut it down earlier this year. A judge ruled that the shelter can operate while the court case over the city’s actions plays out.
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Homeless people in Kalispell say they could freeze to death on the streets this winter after city officials closed a warming shelter. The shelter is suing the city to reopen before the snow flies.
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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.
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The Kalispell City Council will vote on whether or not the Flathead Warming Center will be permitted to stay open.