Kalispell City Council Approves Flathead Warming Center Settlement

The Kalispell City Council ratified an agreement Monday night between the city and the Flathead Warming Center to reinstate the low-barrier homeless shelter’s conditional use permit.

The agreement requires continued communication between the center and the city, delineating City Manager Doug Russell as the city’s point person, necessitating the center hold a quarterly in-person board meeting open to the public, and includes an official apology from the city to Tonya Horn, the director of the center, for accusations of perjury during the process.

Just under 30 community members attended the March 17 meeting, many decked out in green for St. Patrick’s Day. Several provided public comment on behalf of the Warming Center, including Rebecca Smith, a resident at the center for nearly four months whose journey through legal troubles and issues with other shelters landed her at the Warming Center’s doors.  

“They believed in me and gave me hope,” Smith said. “I now have housing, a car, and a stable job all because of the Warming Center decided to believe in me and give me hope when I had lost hope.”

The center’s resource manager Sean Patrick O’Neill said the settlement marked a return of hope at the center, listing the programs and services the it offers.

“The proof is in the pudding,” O’Neill said. “Throughout this abbreviated shelter season, we have helped 23 Flathead Warming Center guests get into housing or treatment.”

In January, the center released a community connection guide, detailing how the center will incorporate a new law-enforcement liaison and host community meetings.

Kenny Nelson, a neighbor who was part of a group that originally brought complaints against the center, said that the actions to collaborate with the community since January have satisfied what she originally asked for. Still, she expressed frustration that the issue went to court, which as part of the agreement will cost the city $140,000 in attorney fees.

“Everything that we wanted them to do they have now done,” Nelson said. “I’m not happy we’re settling a suit that should have never happened to begin with, but I do understand it. It is the right thing to do.”  

Horn followed with a prepared statement, encouraging those with lingering questions and concerns to visit the center or call the center’s hotline.

“My heart continues to hurt, because no one is winning,” Horn said. “To the neighbors, I understand that some of you do not feel heard by us. With that in mind, we will continue to work hard for you to see that we do care.”

The ratification solidifies an agreement that Kalispell and the Flathead Warming Center reached during a 13-hour mediation period on Feb. 25, nearly a year after neighbors’ began publicly criticizing the center for drawing homeless people to the area, leading to the city rescinding the center’s conditional use permit and the center’s subsequent lawsuit. The city received a preliminary injunction from a judge in November to allow the Warming Center to continue operating during litigation.

Councilor Ryan Hunter read aloud the city’s apology to Horn at the meeting, though noting that he believed “it wasn’t comprehensive enough.”

“The Warming Center will formalize as part of this process measures it has always practiced since it opened, with the addition of opening their board meetings quarterly to hear any public complaints or concerns,” Hunter said. “They are not doing anything new before any of this started other than opening up those board meetings. And if you think they are, you were not paying attention to the public comments and this whole process.”

The city council unanimously voted to ratify the agreement, with Mayor Mike Johnson absent and Council President Chad Graham running the meeting in his place.

“’Let’s turn the page’ is a very powerful statement,” Graham said. “I’m very hopeful that with this in mind there is an opportunity for a good reset in the months to come.”

The final step in the court case is the judge’s approval of the mutually agreed upon document and dismissal of the case.

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