24 Hours on a Bench, Flathead Warming Center CEO Chats with Community
The low-barrier overnight shelter joined a nationwide event to facilitate conversations about homelessness and potential solutions
By Zoë Buhrmaster
Tonya Horn sat down on a bench in front of the Flathead Warming Center on Thursday afternoon surrounded by a few other staff members and in front of a camera and microphone. She wouldn’t be leaving the bench for the next 24 hours, save for the occasional brief break.
Horn noted that she hadn’t stayed up that long since she was in high school.
“It’s going to be hard to stay awake, but we’ve got plenty of coffee and plenty of things to talk about and plenty of good people who have questions and want to come to the table to talk about solutions,” Horn said.
This was the first time the warming center joined the “Conversations on a Bench,” a nationwide event highlighting homelessness.
A rescue mission in Fresno, Calif, held the first Conversations on a Bench in 2024, born out of a desire to address the high rates of homelessness in the city. The mission’s CEO Matt Dildine sat on a city bench for 24 hours, talking with local leaders and community members about factors surrounding homelessness and potential solutions. The event quickly grew and is now sponsored by the faith-based homeless initiative Citygate Network, with participating rescue missions in 70 cities across the country that each livestream their 24-hour conversations online.
At the Flathead Warming Center, CEO Tonya Horn sat down on a bench outside the low-barrier overnight shelter at 1 p.m. on Oct. 9, in sync with the nationwide cohort of rescue mission directors.
“We’re not trying to do a simulation of homeless here because there’s no way we could that truly simulate what it’s like to be homeless,” Horn said at the beginning of the livestream. “My personal goal is to try to recognize that there are impacts to homelessness throughout our community and we’ve got to have those hard conversations so that we can come to the right solutions for our community.”
People joined the conversation in both scheduled and on-the-spot chats, showing up in person and calling in over the phone. Horn talked with pastors about how their faith shaped their perspective on homelessness, Kalispell municipal candidates on changes they’d like to see in the community, and emergency room doctors on the impacts of mental health struggles and addiction. Leaders from local community organizations including the Abbie Shelter and the Sparrow’s Nest came and chatted with Horn about how the various organizations’ work intersected. A curious community member who lived nearby saw Horn outside and showed up in the late evening with coffee.
Kyle Heinecke, a staff member at the warming center and a pastor at Fresh Life Church, stayed at the center for most of the night as support. Not everyone who showed up agreed with Horn, he said, but he added that Horn wasn’t there to change anyone’s mind.
“Tonya didn’t set out to change people’s mind, but just to give a different perspective,” Heinecke said.
October 10 also marks World Homeless Day and opening day for the Flathead Warming Center.
This season, warming center staff are planning new ways to strengthen the center’s mission, including increased accountability in the center’s Roadmap program. The program has guests meet with a peer specialist or licensed addictions counselor to draft a personal plan, connecting them with pertinent community resources.
Guests are required to meet with their assigned counselor within the first seven nights of staying at the shelter, an appointment that can be difficult to make for people in crisis, said Sean Patrick O’Neil, resource manager for the warming center.
“It’s not like people just have those boots and bootstraps ready to go to just pull themselves up by them,” O’Neil said. “We have to help them get those things figured out – well, let’s get some socks first.”
O’Neil said that staff plans on adding more reminders to help guests make the appointments, and implement other strategies to meet people where they are to get them to take those first steps.
The center dealt with some controversy from the local community last winter with complaints that resulted in the revoking of its conditional use permit, which was ultimately reinstated. With the opening of a new season, warming center staff is looking forward to continuing building relationships with the local community in their mission to serve the homeless.
“We’re really trying to look forward and not look at the past,” Heinecke said. “We need the city and the city needs us. Whenever everyone has a warm heart, and a humble spirit, we can work together.”
