Real Change Missoula

09/10/2014

The Real Change season has concluded, but the work of doing outreach continues. Thank you to everyone who supports Real change. If you are interested in volunteering on a clean-up of the Reserve Street camps, we could use your help on Friday, October 3. Contact Ellie Long at the Clark Fork Coalition if you want to volunteer. Her email is [email protected]

08/28/2014

At the beginning of October there will be another volunteer clean-up at the Reserve Street homeless camps. This effort is in collaboration with the Health Department, the Clark Fork Coalition, Montana Department of Transportation and Poverello Center, Inc. There will be more information available once the date of the clean-up has been finalized.

08/12/2014

The Homeless Outreach Teams wear our orange shirts so that people will know who we are. Here's an example of when that was a good thing:
A man and woman were stranded in Missoula with no money, a broken down car and serious medical issues. Sitting in a park, they contemplated what to do.

In a thank you letter one wrote, "then a couple people walked up in orange shirts. They told us where we could get a short stay and medical care, then helped us coordinate logistics for moving on to Washington where we were heading. In short, they saved my life." Thank you to all of the volunteers who make these successes possible in our community!

08/06/2014

On Monday of this week I worked with two members of the Missoula Health Department to clean up the remains of an abandoned homeless camp along Grant Creek. This is the second camp at this location that has required removal. It’s a great example of what collaboration can produce!

07/29/2014

http://lastbestnews.com/site/2014/07/prairie-lights-lets-not-give-up-on-the-downtown/

Here is an article that is worth reading from Ed Kemmick, former reporter for the Billings Gazette. The article includes the perspective of two downtown businesses worth considering as Billings reacts to the stabbing death of Michael Sample.

You want to talk about problems with transients on Montana Avenue? Talk to Mike Schaer. When he moved his computer business to the avenue 33 years ago, there were vacant buildings all along Montana, and “the transients were really all over the place.” They could buy cheap booze at the Empire Bar, th…

07/22/2014

This slide was included on a recent and interesting webinar on criminalizing homelessness. This shows how much money the city of Albuquerque has saved in just one year after implementing the housing first model. (more than $615,000)

07/16/2014

Last week the HOT Program assisted with the discharge of a young woman from the hospital. With no health insurance, serious physical injuries from a vehicular accident and history of abuse, this young person could very well fall through the cracks. Luckily we have some new options to fill some of the gaps in our community, like the Missoula Interfaith Collaborative (MIC), Homeless Advocate Network, and a new Peer Recovery pilot program. When traditional options like mental health case management aren't available, it's critical to have some level of support beyond the basics of food and shelter.

07/08/2014

Mental illness is a significant contributing factor to chronic homelessness. Here are some numbers from a 2007 survey by the National Alliance to End Homelessness: “A 2007 survey by the National Alliance to End Homelessness reported that there were approximately 744,000 homeless persons in the US. Among these, approximately two- thirds were single persons and one-third were families. One-quarter of the homeless persons were said to be chronically homeless.
Numerous studies have reported that approximately one-third of homeless persons have a serious mental illness, mostly schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. The percentage is higher among those who are chronically homeless and among homeless women and is lower among homeless families.
If overall one-third of homeless persons are seriously mentally ill, that means that there are approximately 250,000 homeless persons with serious mental illnesses in the US.” For more, check out this site: http://mentalillnesspolicy.org/consequences/homeless-mentally-ill.html

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07/05/2014

07/01/2014

A few weeks ago the downtown police officer gave the HOT line a call. An individual who has been on the streets for years was shaking from not drinking and told the officer he wanted help. We were able to take advantage of this small window of opportunity by responding to the call, relocating him to our facility and providing some clean clothes after he got himself cleaned up. Then Partnership Health squeezed him in to see a provider so he could get some medication to counter the detox symptoms. The client, who had never spent a sober night in our facility, spent over a week maintaining his sobriety. It was an encouraging example of what can be accomplished when we work together.

06/24/2014

Last Friday, as part of United Way Day of Action hosted by United Way of Missoula County, I took about a dozen volunteers from DIRECTV to pick up trash from abandoned homeless camps near the new Silver Park. This area, known as the Old Saw Mill District, is being revitalized, though old uses of this area persist. While picking up trash is great, the value with these cleanups, for me, is the perspective I’m able to share with volunteers. Though we only spent a few hours filling a few dozen bags of trash, I hope, for the volunteers, it was an informative experience that broadens their understanding of the shelter-resistant population the Homeless the Homeless Outreach Teams work with.Outreach Teams work with.