Helping ‘Justice-Involved’ People Find Housing in Missoula

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Both Missoula County and Homeword have received funding to help break the link between homelessness and incarceration with funding from two major foundations, the Urban Institute and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

I spoke with Chelsea Wittmann, Missoula County Safety and Justice Challenge Coordinator about the Just Home project.

The Just Home Project Houses 'Justice-Involved' People

“The Just Home Project is an initiative that has come out of the Safety and Justice challenge work that Missoula County has been doing for the past probably six or seven years,” began Wittmann. “This project will allow us to do an assessment of the housing needs of ‘justice-involved’ people who are residing in Missoula and find themselves unhoused.”

Wittmann was clear about the overall purpose of the ‘Just Home’ project.

Homeword and Missoula County Have Received $250,000 in Funding

“What we hope to get from this is a data-driven look at who our population is, what resources there are, how we can build out our continuum of housing resources to get more people housed and to break those cycles of homelessness and incarceration.”

This initial step in the project has received funding from the two foundations.

“The funding is coming from the MacArthur Foundation,” she said. “The planning phase of the project is obviously the first part, and that is just under $250,000 that Missoula and Homeword will receive to design local intervention strategies to disrupt those cycles.”

Homelessness has become a focal point for discussion and controversy in Missoula and throughout the country, but Wittmann said the two existing shelters won’t solve the problem for those involved with the justice system.

The Goal is to Provide Not Just Temporary But Permanent Housing

“The Poverello Center, the Johnson Street Shelter, all those entities that you just named were made to build on the work that they've already put in place,” she said. “I think the distinction that we want to draw is that all of those interventions are shelter options, so they're meant to be temporary, and what we're hoping to develop is a housing intervention, so this is an accessible, affordable, and permanent, supportive housing model.”

READ MORE: Missoula Shelter Celebrates 50th With Campaign to Fight Hunger

As the project continues, Missoula County will have access to more support from the MacArthur Foundation to help achieve its housing goals.