Many stakeholders throughout the Flathead Valley are zeroing in on ways to address shelter challenges in Flathead Valley, where according to the results of recently compiled research, there are about three times the number emergency shelters as there are transitional shelters.

Stable housing options are imperative for tackling homelessness, mental-health and substance-abuse issues in a community — three challenges that more often than not go hand-in-hand for troubled individuals.

Addressing gaps in emergency and transitional shelters in Flathead County has become the most recent deep focus among an informal group of leaders in the valley that provide mental-health and substance-abuse resources. Leaders have conducted many months of collaborative research in which they identified ways to effectively divert individuals suffering from mental-health issues or substance-use disorders from the criminal justice system and other locations.

The research was supported by a grant from the Montana Health Care Foundation that was awarded to the City-County Health Department last summer. Those involved in the project included city officials, hospital and county representatives, housing partners and many others who used a comprehensive mapping tool to analyze and compile information. The final map is complex and lists all county resources that could be helpful when diverting a person in crisis from jail and has helped leaders identify where improvements or additional resources are most-needed.

For example, the map was able to show them there is no therapist dedicated to assisting law enforcement when mental-health emergencies are called in. To address this, Western Montana Mental Health is in the process of launching a job search for such an individual. The group is still ironing out some kinks on exactly what the position will entail, but believe the new hire will be housed at the Kalispell Police Department and will work a stretch of hours when police receive the calls related to mental-health crises.

“This will take a load off our law enforcement, who have really been on the front line of those calls,” said Holly Jordt with the Flathead City-County Health Department.

With the search for a qualified therapist in its beginning stages, the group now has turned its attention to another major gap highlighted through the initial mapping exercise — housing and shelters.

What the leaders found is the valley offers a decent selection of emergency shelters, or resources that accommodate individuals for brief periods of time, often just overnight or for certain hours. These include the new Flathead Warming Center, A Ray of Hope, the Kalispell Police Department, The Village and several others.

But what was also discovered is there are far fewer options for transitional shelters where individuals can stay for extended periods of time and work with professionals and other staff to manage addiction, get in touch with mental-health providers and get back on their feet in the community. These include the Samaritan House, ASSIST and Sparrow’s Nest.

“People can’t be healthy when they don’t have a house,” Jordt said at the most recent Alliance for a Drug Free Flathead meeting on Wednesday. “What we are seeing here is there are about three times the number of emergency shelters as there are transitional shelters. It’s kind of a bottleneck.”

There are approximately 135 beds at overnight shelters, but only about 40 beds for transitional housing.

Jordt added it’s important to note that although the Flathead has more options for emergency shelters than transitional ones, emergency locations are still filling to capacity regularly. She noted the new Flathead Warming Center has already had to turn away homeless individuals this winter.

According to one of the most recently available assessments on the homeless in Flathead County, 434 individuals were experiencing homelessness in the area in 2019 and about 25% of those were unsheltered. This is compared to other highly populated areas in the state where that percentage is closer to 15%.

“We have a big problem here,” Jordt said. “We aren’t at the level of other larger cities like Seattle and others but I don’t want to wait until it’s a bigger problem. We don’t want to look back five years from now and say we wish we would have tried harder.”

THESE DISCUSSIONS come as the topic of homelessness has dominated conversations with the city of Kalispell and greater Flathead County.

Every year starting in January, counties are tasked with gathering an “average point in time count” of sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons by household type and subpopulation.

This is a requirement of the federal government’s Housing and Urban Development program and determines how much money will be allocated to a specific area or county. Local organizations that offer services for homeless populations can then apply for funding through the government’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.

The count starts in January every year. Therefore the efforts, which involve organizations collaborating with local shelters and schools, recently wrapped up and leaders are waiting to find out how much funding will be available.

The city of Kalispell recently passed a controversial ordinance making it a civil infraction to sleep in vehicles on city streets.

While some Kalispell City Council members say there are plenty of other options for those sleeping in their cars, others have challenged that claim, pointing to overloaded shelters and strained resources.

When the ordinance first surfaced in late 2019, Flathead Food Band Executive Director Jamie Quinn asked the council, “Do you know what the vacancy rate in this area is? It is 1.2%...instead of talking about building more housing and it being affordable housing, you’re talking about locking people up and giving them fines when they are sleeping in their vehicle when they have nowhere else to go.”

The council last week revisited the city’s sleeping in vehicles ordinance, but a majority of the council reiterated their support of the ordinance. Mayor Mark Johnson concluded, “to me there isn’t enough to tell me I have to return this or even bring it up at the next council [meeting].”

Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4407 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com