Kalispell Mayor Ryan Hunter has proposed having social workers join law enforcement during homeless encampment clearings, though public safety officials caution that the effort would come with logistical challenges.  

Hunter broached the idea during a City Council meeting in January while reviewing the Parks and Recreation Department’s new master plan, which included a public survey that found that homelessness in city parks is a top issue for residents.  

“I just know from my interactions with social service agencies that sometimes there’s folks that are hard to find in the community or are not very receptive at times to assistance,” Hunter told the Inter Lake. “It just increases that opportunity of interaction.” 

But Kalispell Police Chief Jordan Venezio and City Manager Jarod Nygren said that coordinating with social service providers on complaint-driven camp clearings would be difficult to schedule. 

“When we get complaints, we tend to follow up on them in a certain amount of time, and making sure all of that’s coordinated would probably be the most difficult,” Nygren said.  

“Not that it’s impossible, we would need to have those discussions about what a process like that would look like, what a timeline would look like and go from there,” he added. 

Kalispell Police officers patrol Woodland Park and Lawrence Park after they close for the evening to clear out anyone still there. During daylight hours, officers’ presence in the park is typically complaint driven, according to Venezio.  

He said officers usually deal with many of the same people throughout the week. 

Homeless individuals are given time to pack their things before Parks and Recreation personnel clean up anything left behind. Items valued over $25 are held by the city for a period of time, according to Nygren.   

Council in 2023 approved a trio of ordinances that targeted homeless people by banning erected structures on park property and limiting both personal belongings and the time people may occupy covered park facilities without permits. 

ONE OF the services on the front lines aiding homeless individuals is the Crisis Assistance Team. Law enforcement and emergency responders across Flathead County regularly call the behavioral health experts trained to counsel people in crisis, perform field mental health evaluations and advise officers on scene. 

The program launched in August 2020 and aimed to reduce the frequency of 911 calls related to behavioral health issues. The mobile crisis response team, consisting of two clinicians and two care coordinators, operates under the Behavioral Health Division of the Flathead City-County Health Department and works between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m., seven days a week.   

In 2025, 30% of the Crisis Assistance Team’s encounters were with homeless individuals, according to James Pyke, the county’s behavioral health supervisor and crisis team program lead. 

Encounters occur when homeless shelters call the agency to help deescalate someone in crisis or when a 911 call is flagged as a mental health concern by law enforcement. Requests for the team can also come directly from dispatchers or the reporting party.  

Pyke praised Kalispell Police officers and other law enforcement in the county for their willingness to rely on the Crisis Assistance Team.   

“From my understanding ... I think sometimes it’s a little more justice heavy or law enforcement heavy, where I think our local agencies are really kind of person centered, solution oriented, and that’s pretty amazing,” he added. 

Because the team’s primary function is responding to emergency calls, they are typically not contacted for camp clearings. Scheduling an allotted time to accompany law enforcement during camp clearings while fielding unpredictable 911 calls would prove difficult, Pyke said.  

“That’s not something we’re specifically tagged to. That doesn’t mean we couldn’t do it,” Pyke said. “If KPD or any other law enforcement agency contacted us and said we would like you on scene for whatever the purpose, we would gladly do that within our time allotments, typically.” 

After expanding operations to seven days a week in July 2024, the volume of responses skyrocketed, according to Pyke. In 2025 the crisis team responded to 1,450 calls and served 540 individuals.  

“That’s a crazy amount of volume,” Pyke said.  

The crisis team would need a second branch to handle non-emergency support during camp clearings, Pyke said. He envisioned collaborating with other agencies, like homeless shelters, to form an ad hoc outreach team similar to what larger cities have.   

“You kind of have to expand to do that, because we’re swamped with 911,” Pyke said.    

Pyke is planning to eventually hire a third clinician and care coordinator. But expanding the service still wouldn't address the broader shortage of mental health and housing resources in the valley, Pyke said. 

“I think where we are challenged on the kind of broader issue of homelessness or mental health care is, where do they go next?” Pyke said. “I think you could put as many mobile teams into the community as you thought you needed and still run into the same cyclical challenges.”   

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