The Pov steps in to fill housing gap left by Hope Rescue Mission

by Alex Sakariassen

Missoula County commissioners inked a two-year agreement with the Poverello Center on Tuesday to reopen and maintain a 30-shelter transitional housing facility off West Broadway. The deal adds another program to the Pov's already broad slate of services — and keeps a critical piece of Missoula's housing continuum from disappearing, ensuring locals experiencing homelessness can continue to access a stepping stone toward housing stability that’s benefited hundreds since late 2020.

The Temporary Safe Outdoor Space, or TSOS, as it’s called, is a collection of 30 separate, hard-sided shelters complete with beds, lockable doors, heating and air conditioning. The site is also staffed around the clock and has become an access hub for a host of services, including case management and work-readiness programs. Jill Bonny, the Pov’s executive director, likened it to her nonprofit’s 11-year-old transitional housing program for veterans — a stage between low-barrier shelters and permanent housing for those who could benefit from a little sustained support along the way.

“I think one of the biggest confusing things for people is understanding the difference between a low-barrier shelter and transitional housing,” Bonny told The Pulp this week. “Those things are very different. They serve different needs in the community for different people, and one organization can be good at both.”

Though the TSOS has been a fixture in the housing assistance community over the past six years, its fate became an open question in June when Hope Rescue Mission announced it would be stepping away from a suite of government-funded programs effective this fall. The decision came several months after the nonprofit began phasing out community-based women’s recovery services and impacted not only the TSOS — which Hope Rescue Mission had staffed and operated in partnership with the county and United Way since its inception — but also other transition assistance and drop-in services helmed by the nonprofit.

“We remain committed to honoring and respecting governing authorities, community leaders, and the many partners who have worked alongside us,” Hope Rescue Mission’s board wrote in a public statement. “At the same time, we recognize that our first responsibility is to faithfully follow God’s calling for this ministry. As the apostles declared in Acts 5:29, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’”

The moment news of that withdrawal hit this summer, Bonny said the Pov and other key players in Missoula’s housing support scene leaped into action, discussing how the city might maintain the transitional site moving forward and what the operational requirements might look like. Meanwhile, she added, Hope Rescue Mission worked to secure permanent housing for those still sheltered at the TSOS before shuttering the site in early September. Bonny noted that the few individuals who were only able to find temporary housing will be at the top of the list when the Pov restarts services Nov. 1.

County officials are using that brief gap to shore up the physical infrastructure at the TSOS, and with the agreement signed, Bonny has turned to finalizing a staffing plan. Missoula County is putting up $800,000 to support the Poverello Center’s efforts at the site over the next two years, money the nonprofit will in part put toward hiring a slate of new positions. Whether or not the county’s financial investment continues after those two years, Bonny struck a hopeful tone for the long-term. “The Pov is scrappy,” she said. “We’ll figure it out.” 

That said, housing insecurity is a sprawling issue and one organization can’t be expected to address it alone. Poverello Center board chair Chris Chitty told The Pulp that while preserving the TSOS was a clear and fitting priority, his organization’s resources are finite, and the Pov needs to be seen less as Missoula’s sole answer to homelessness and more as a specialized part of a wider community network.

“Everybody has come together and agrees [TSOS] is a resource that we don’t want to have go away, and it’s worth spending our precious resources to do,” Chitty said. “But it’s not always going to be that way.”

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Decoding the ballot issues 🗳️

The November midterm election is officially less than six weeks away. Our votes won't just decide high-stakes elections — they could also refashion key components of the Montana Constitution, from how judicial candidates identify themselves on the ballot to how citizens can petition for lasting change in their government.

Ballot measures can get a little heavy on the legalese at times, which can make it challenging to suss out exactly what a “yes” or “no” vote actually means. In the case of Constitutional Initiative 132, the pitch is pretty straightforward: to “require that judicial elections remain nonpartisan.” Candidates running in judicial-level races, such as for the state Supreme Court, currently don’t run under a political party banner — no Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians or Greens. If CI-132 passes, that nonpartisan status quo will be codified in the Montana Constitution, making it even more difficult for a wing of the state GOP to force judicial candidates to declare an ideological affiliation on the ballot.

A second ballot measure, CI-133, is about, well, ballot measures. While it sounds a bit more complicated on paper, with references to specific timelines and procedures for ballot initiatives and referendums, the general thrust is actually pretty simple: to enshrine Montana’s ballot initiative process in the state constitution. Currently citizens can petition to put major issues involving government policy and individual rights on the ballot, allowing the people to decide through a majority vote — provided they can collect enough signatures to demonstrate widespread interest and concern. Montanans have flexed this power of direct democracy to settle numerous questions over the past century involving coal revenue usage, campaign contribution limits, minimum wage increases, recreational marijuana use and, most recently, the constitutional right to abortion. CI-133 seeks to preserve this process as a fundamental right of Montana citizens and establish guardrails to protect against state government interference.

That’s a fitting segue to the final non-candidate statewide issue voters will decide on come November. Like CI-133, Initiative 194 might read as a little jargony on the ballot, outlining various limits it aims to apply to “the powers of artificial persons.” The plain read here is that proponents of I-194 want to ban corporate money from Montana elections. They define “artificial persons” as corporations, nonprofits, trusts and trade associations — in essence, a litany of non-human entities that won wide spending latitude in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Such forces are spending more than $1 billion, anonymously, to influence this year’s midterm elections alone. Montana already boasts some of the most rigid campaign finance laws in the country, but a group of petitioners led by former Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan wants to crack down even further. While I-194 wouldn’t amend the state constitution, it would direct the Legislature to pass laws barring “artificial persons” from using their resources to support or oppose candidates, political parties or ballot issues — with some exceptions for political committees, for individuals and for news outlets that feature editorial commentary.

Mail-in ballots for the 2026 general election go out Oct. 9, and voters can check their current registration status at the state’s online voter portal. Election Day is Nov. 3.

The ledger #️⃣

$187,000

Annual savings the Missoula Public Library estimates it could realize over the next two years through a series of proposed service reductions. Library officials briefed Missoula County commissioners this week about an ongoing budget deficit tied to static levy revenues over the past two decades and laid out a plan that would see the library close its doors on Sundays, scale back its evening hours on Mondays and shutter the Frenchtown branch it operates in partnership with Frenchtown High School. The library board will likely vote on the proposal Oct. 28 and is soliciting public comment in the meantime.

The week ahead 🗓️

• On Tuesday, Sept. 29, the League of Women Voters’ Missoula chapter will host a presentation about one of the more polarizing facets of America’s political system, titled “Abolish the Electoral College.” Part history lesson and part cautionary tale, the event (scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Missoula Public Library) features speaker Geoff Badenoch and special guest Willis Curdy, a Democratic state senator out of Missoula, discussing why the controversial institution should be abandoned.
  

• Also next Tuesday, Forward Montana is holding a vaguely Halloween-themed candidate forum at the Zootown Arts Community Center for six of Missoula’s state House and Senate seats. Voters are asked to raise questions on the issues most pressing to them, which the legislative contenders will then seek to answer while eating jelly beans. Halloween costumes are also encouraged. The forum runs from 6 to 7:30 p.m.
  

Find a list of all upcoming city meetings here and county meetings here.

The feed 🗞️