Small Town Homeless Mecca
-
5/23/2020
Missoula is an interesting place. If you are an activist focusing on the homeless, Missoula is probably the place for you as Missoula has made the city a very inviting place for the "homeless" population. We have a homeless shelter downtown and various vagrant camps along the Clark Fork River that runs through town. In the past year or so we paid the city to clean up the river shore in town, hauling away needles, garbage, waste and other detritus. City governance stated their purpose was to encourage city residents (not homeless) to use the beautiful river area to drive the homeless from its shores. It didn't accomplish that goal. In a matter of months the river area is once again populated by homeless and unusable by city residents. In response, the city said the non-homeless "homeful?" didn't use the land quickly enough so it was re-occupied. It has now surrendered its efforts to make the waterway livable for Missoulians. People and families concerned with their own safety avoid the area.
If you are a homeowner on the Clark Fork river anywhere near town, and you don't want your view to be the garbage left on public property from abandoned transient camps, then you will have to clean away the camp with your labor and your funds. The city declines to help even though city residents pay the city to maintain municipal property. There is a permanent camp on the Clark Fork at the busiest intersection in town on Reserve Street adjacent to a popular shopping area. Up-ended shopping carts, piles of garbage, torn tarps and general filth provide a thoughtful view when stuck in traffic.
The "M" is a popular trail up a mountain close to the university. A "homeless" and clothesless man recently attacked a woman walking her dog there and later the same day attacked two men hiking the hill who fortunately had a weapon and knifed him.
Nearly each week, until I stopped taking the newspaper (which is generally a good paper) the front page of the paper featured the plight of the homeless and Missoula's responsibilities to do more.
In the meantime people who own homes and pay $4,000-$6,000 per year in property taxes are left wondering whether they will be able to use the new library they paid for or whether it will be just more public property to be abused by the homeless. Those who bear the tax burden of paying for public properties are left wondering what kind of weapons they should take on their hikes above the University so they will survive an assault by a member of a favored group for whom we are expected to only have empathy and tolerance as they destroy our living environment. I would not consider attending University of Montana due to the proximity of filthy camps, transient violence and dead bodies to the university campus. It might be time for the city of Missoula to balance the demands it makes on less favored residents (homeowners, renters, students) to fund its favored homeless programs. In summary, despite its geographic beauty I would not move to Missoula. Property taxes are phenomenally high and the city prioritizes the "needs" of the homeless without consideration for the cost paid by the rest of the population - the "homeful" amongst us.
Anika | Missoula, MT