Chronically homeless Billings man offered help from new shelter

A new shelter, Off The Streets, hopes to change that, with an approach that challenges the principles behind Billings’ current approach to homelessness.

“The system is broken and needs to be fixed creatively,” said Craig Barthel, founder of OTS and former site director of the city’s COVID shelter. The OTS currently houses around 70 people and hopes to expand to accommodate 400 people.

“We have to find a solution, so that everyone benefits: businesses, safety, the community,” said Melanie Schwartz, the organization’s lead fundraiser. “It’s still a solvable problem, but that window is closing.”

The main lodging option in Billings is the Montana Rescue Mission, an organization that “combines God’s grace with accountability” and is “here to lend a hand, not handouts.” MRM also operates an emergency shelter, capped at 14 days per year for those not participating in a “mind, body and spirit” program, which requires sobriety and involves mental health treatment, addiction recovery, education and job training.

The OTS, for its part, wants to create a “true low-barrier shelter,” where people will be offered shelter without sobriety or other requirements. The OTS team sees it as a complement to the MRM, intended for people who are difficult to house and have been homeless for a long time.

“Some people can’t make it through a very rigorous program, that doesn’t mean they’re worthless,” said Ken Koerber, the organization’s executive director.

It is by definition unlikely that the chronically homeless population will be able to do this.

“Federal policy increasingly recognizes chronically homeless people as a vulnerable population of adults with disabilities,” according to a report from the Center for Evidence-Based Solutions to Homelessness. “Disability was included in the definition from the start…because research shows that almost all people experiencing chronic homelessness have documented disabilities that can create barriers to exit.” »

Serious mental illnesses fall under this definition of disability. The city and county have focused on substance use disorder treatment as a method of getting people off the streets, both through the Homeless Outreach Team and the program motivated alternatives to substance abuse, but people with serious mental illnesses cannot be treated in substance use disorder treatment programs. , like the Rimrock Foundation.

Barthel estimates that the percentage of current OTS residents with disabilities is in the “high 90s.” He said about a third of residents receive disability benefits from the federal government. But at $943, even people without significant mental and physical health issues would struggle to remain housed in Billings.

People served by OTS have been homeless for so long that some are more comfortable outside than inside, Barthel said. Additional housing requirements further harm their ability to obtain housing.

“There’s an idea that giving people things hurts them, but housing is not one of them,” he said.

“Activation happens at the very beginning,” Koerber said. “Without allowing them, you tell them to stay outside.”

At least four unhoused people have died in Billings this year: Stanley Littleboy was found submerged in a ditch in February, Victor Isaac Costa Jr. was found in a shipping container in March, “Faye” Violet Faith Ennick was killed in an accident. -racing accident and James Summers Bennett was shot and killed by police while wielding a machete downtown.

“Allowing someone to stay alive is a good thing,” Koerber continued.

Dena Bishopp, operations manager at the shelter, said housing someone can jumpstart the recovery process.

“People need to have a warm place to sleep and shower. Then they start to feel more normal,” she said. “The way we’re doing it now doesn’t seem to be working.”

“The streets drive you crazy,” he said. “After 90 days on the street, it starts to mess with your head.”

This can make it difficult, if not impossible, for people to deal with issues that may be contributing to their situation.

“People end up like this and lose the motivation to help themselves,” Koerber said.

Additionally, many chronically unhoused people have had negative experiences with local community providers and are distrustful of the people expected to help them.

“They push our buttons just to see if we’re like everyone else,” Barthel said. “They curse us, insult us.”

The shelter had to ask people to leave.

“It’s not about ‘Go away forever,’ it’s about ‘Take some time and come back,'” he said.

Many unhoused people not only face significant physical and behavioral barriers to accessing employment and housing, but also logistical barriers, including lack of identification or social security cards. OTS can help them acquire these documents and navigate the work process.

Jobs held by residents include working at Hardee’s or St. Vincent de Paul, collecting signatures for ballot initiatives, housekeeping, or preparing emergency supply packages for AMS. Even some residents who cannot read or write have been able to find work, with the help of the OTS team.

With income, residents can move out of shared emergency shelter rooms and into their own transitional housing rooms.

“Pride is powerful,” Barthel said. “They feel valued by paying for their room.”

The organization seeks to act as a “cheerleader and coach” for residents and to promote their autonomy.

“We ask them three goals when they move in and start working on them immediately,” Barthel said.

Although accountability and shelter requirements may satisfy people worried about help or assistance, the 2007 report from the original Billings Coalition to End Homelessness found that there is an economic incentive to place people in shelter.

The group, called Welcome Home Billings, reported that at the time an ambulance cost $900 each way; an emergency room visit costs $1,500; a day in a psychiatric hospital costs $2,200; a day in jail costs $60; and a day in a shelter costs $38.

“Over the course of a year, a chronically homeless person often moves through public systems, including shelters, prisons, substance abuse and mental health treatment centers, and emergency medical centers,” the report.

It’s what Philip Mangano, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness under President George W. Bush, called “random ricochet,” which, at great cost, fails to solve the problem.

In 2014, Billings public and private organizations spent $8.5 million on emergency services, health care and law enforcement outreach to the homeless, according to a document announcing the launching a program for the homeless downtown.

By 2020, $10.3 million was spent on emergency and law enforcement services provided to 93 “large chronic users in downtown Billings,” according to a study commission led by the city in 2021.

Katie Harrison, founder of SustainaBillings, wrote in an email to the city council that every day she sees the same unhoused man “sucked up (i.e. arrested or taken by ambulance) and literally spit out in the street.” .

Officer Nicholas Fonte, a downtown officer with the Billings Police Department, said he has already seen the same unhoused man taken to the hospital 10 times in 24 hours.

Bill Meyer, a chronically unhoused man who lived 40 of his 70 years on the streets, was hospitalized 48 times and had 26 encounters with law enforcement over an 18-month period.

Billings residents have demonstrated their frugality through the recent failures of the parks tax and the school safety tax. This frugality has not yet been applied to the fight against homelessness.

“It is less expensive to house the homeless than to leave them on the streets,” says the 2007 Welcome Home Billings report.

OTS hopes to be particularly cost-effective in that it does not plan to provide medical, mental health or substance abuse services, as can be found elsewhere in the community.

“We don’t want to be the solution, we want to house them so they can find the solution,” Koerber said.