Kalispell City Council remains unable to render a decision on whether to issue a permit to a facility for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. At its Monday meeting, the council voted, 6-1, to request an opinion from the state attorney general’s office that might aid Kalispell in defining Freedom House for the purposes of zoning, and allow the council to reach consensus on what type of conditional use permit, if any, to approve for the facility.
Freedom House, where up to eight men can choose to live in a sober environment, doesn’t fit into any of Kalispell’s zoning categories. And since the city changed its zoning laws, supporters of the facility say it no longer requires a permit, despite objections from some neighbors.
“I’m not going to vote for a conditional use permit that doesn’t have conditions,” Councilman Tim Kluesner. “We’re in an oxymoron, it makes no sense.”
“This is a conundrum,” Jim Atkinson. “We’re voting on a conundrum.”
City Attorney Charlie Harball warned, however, that the attorney general’s opinion would be informal, and could take as long as four months to render.
Freedom House supporters took issue with the statements by some council members that their indecision, which has been ongoing for months, wasn’t harming the operation of the house. William Hawk, Freedom House’s resident manager, said the ongoing media attention has made life for the men living there more difficult as they struggle to get back on their feet and beat their addictions.
“You have no idea how much harm this causing to my guys who are in early recovery,” Hawk said. “You have no idea how hard this is stigmatizing the guys who are living in this house.”
Pam Bean, executive director for Montana Fair Housing, said conditions imposed by the city could violate the Montana Human Rights Act and Federal Fair Housing Act.
“The fact that you’re imposing any conditions on this house is going to be deemed by our organization as discriminatory,” Bean said. “To state that this is in no way harming the folks at Freedom House is very incorrect.”