Martin Kidston
(Missoula Current) The City of Missoula this week may dust off a proclamation that declared a homeless emergency two years ago, clearing the way for the mayor to levy 2 additional mills to fund homeless services and support nonprofit providers.
On Monday night, Mayor Andrea Davis addressed the city's new ordinance on urban camping – a move that authorizes overnight camping in public parks and directs the city to provide hygiene stations, trash collection and needle bins, among other things.
The city placed the cost of the ordinance and the measures it calls for at around $1 million.
“We are not standing up resources and additional hygiene stations in all parks. It doesn't make sense to do that and we don't have enough resources to do that,” Davis said. “We're going to be evaluating as time goes forward where people are sheltering. We'll be making tweaks all along the way. This is an interim process.”
The bones of the program's costs were identified in Davis's executive budget and are intended to help various city departments fulfill the mandates of the ordinance. Among them, the parks department is seeking nearly $300,000 to manage “survival camping” in city parks, which includes $70,000 to hire an employee to clean and restock hygiene stations.
Davis said the location of the hygiene stations were selected by the city's parks department. Signs appeared overnight in select parks advising residents that their park"is now a seasonal park where homeless people can overnight camp."
“The parks department has gone through a very thoughtful process identifying what parks we can put some of these additional hygiene stations in,” Davis said. “We needed to identify parks that generally don't have a large landscaping or conservation demand. We wanted to make sure these parks are reasonably located on the bus line, on trails and other types of service amenities.”
The city's new ordinance also permits camping in vehicles in the public right of way, so long as the camper has secured the proper permit and follows the rules within the ordinance. But ensuring that happens also carries a cost, the city said.
To manage the vehicle camping program, the city is seeking $152,000 to hire two additional employees. It's an ongoing expense that covers the cost of educating, permitting, cleaning and ensuring camping compliance.
“I have requested some resources to do that. People are sleeping in vehicles and parks already,” Davis said. “We're doing our best to put a thoughtful program together. It's not going to be perfect.”
The ordinance
The City Council was set to adopt a camping ordinance last November. But Davis – newly elected at the time – asked the council to wait until she could convene an urban camping working group to explore solutions.
A sign posted by the city in Bellview Park reads, "Are you aware that Bellview Park is now a seasonal park where homeless people can overnight camp?" It goes on to say "The city had two out-houses delivered to the park ... (The out-house company has expressed concerns with having to clean up drug paraphernalia and needles at camps similar to what Bellview Park is proposed to be."
The group met several times and offered a range of recommendations. Many of those were included in the new urban camping ordinance adopted by City Council this summer.
Now, the city has dusted off an older “emergency declaration,” declared last year by former Mayor Jordan Hess, which would permit the city to levy 2 mills for homeless services.
“People forced to shelter outdoors are also contributing to public safety, environmental, and health issues that impacts all Missoula residents and the situation demands emergency action to prevent or mitigate suffering, injury, loss or other damage,” the proclamation reads in part.
It goes on to direct “staff to assist the nonprofit provider community during the pendency of this emergency with financial resources, facilities, and technical assistance” regarding the city's homeless population. Last year, the city said the levy would generate more than $500,000 annually.
“The emergency declaration allows the city to levy two mills, which is done by City Council after the expenditure,” said Ginny Merriam, the city's communications director. “Mayor Davis is proposing to levy it.”
The city floated a crisis services levy in 2022 to fund homeless services, including shelters and other programs. However, the levy failed to pass, leaving the city in search of funding.
Regardless of the outcome of that levy, the city and county both have pushed to fund the programs anyway, including those in the urban camping ordinance and the emergency levy now proposed by the mayor.
This year, voters were also asked to approve a fire services levy, which they did. Missoula County will also ask voters to approve a levy to fund roads and bridges.
While the county's budget remains unknown, the city budget would include a tax increase of around 16%, which includes the fire levy but not the emergency proclamation.
The city didn't immediately comment when asked why it's moving to fund homeless programs already opposed by voters at the ballot box just two years ago. The City Council is scheduled to discuss the issue on Wednesday morning.
