Longtime housing advocate Cassidy Kipp is expected to take the reins of the Samaritan House next month.  

The homeless shelter and transitional living facility's board of directors said on Friday that it had hired Kipp as the organization’s executive director. Chris Krager, her predecessor, was removed from the position in December.  

Kipp plans to assume her new role on March 2. 

“[Kipp] brings a unique combination of deep institutional knowledge, proven leadership and a genuine commitment to community impact,” said Samaritan House Board President Nikki Lintz in the Feb. 6 announcement.   

“Her extensive experience in housing development, federal funding and collaborative systems-building makes her distinctively prepared to lead Samaritan House into its next chapter,” she added.  

Kipp’s experience assisting folks experiencing housing insecurity began when she was a child tagging along with her family as they aided homeless people in Woodland Park in the 1980s. Kipp watched her mother perform outreach for the local homeless population until the early 2000s when Kipp began working in housing stabilization. 

“My heart is in anti-poverty work and housing, but specifically, I’ve always been drawn toward assisting people with rapidly rehousing and engaging in work and getting that stabilization. That’s where my passion has been for many, many years,” Kipp told the Inter Lake. 

Kipp has worked for the housing nonprofit Community Action Partnership of Northwest Montana since 2009. She currently serves as the organization’s director of project development.  

Before leaving her current position at the end of the month, Kipp hopes to complete work on a 24-unit affordable housing complex under construction in Libby. She said her experience leading affordable housing developments and securing grants will help bring Samaritan House’s multi-million-dollar expansion project to completion.   

The project is expected to nearly double the facility’s capacity, allowing it to serve 85 more people. The Samaritan House will see income-based two- and three-bedroom apartments, housing for homeless veterans and overflow for the shelter.  

Funding for the $16.9 million expansion project hit a few financial speed bumps over the spring after a $4.3 million-dollar federal grant through the Housing and Urban Development’s Continuum of Care program was awarded and then rescinded. 

For the last 10 years, Kipp has been committed to helping people out of homelessness and into stable housing, an effort she thinks will mesh well with the Samaritan House’s mission.  

“As we look at the goal of the Samaritan House, of building stability, I think that that is so in sync with what my personal philosophy is, as well as the work that I’ve done,” she said.  

Associate Directors Morgan Winchester and Billy Greel have served as interim directors since Krager's removal. 

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].

    Samaritan House in Kalispell on Wednesday, Feb. 5. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider