by William Skink

I want to provide an update on this post about Glacier Hope Homes, a non-profit that claims to help homeless Veterans.

I can’t get too specific about who I talked to, because I wasn’t wearing my blogger hat when they agreed to talk to me, but I will say I talked to two people who work with Veterans in the Flathead Valley, and they both think there is something more going on than just disgruntled Vets complaining about a service provider.

The first person I talked to said she would not refer a Vet to Glacier Hope Homes unless the situation was dire enough that the Vet faced potential death, like sleeping outside in -20 degree weather. That person told me a national organization that works with Vets stopped referring to them as well. She did some digging of her own, and said there is a funder from Great Falls that brings up some red flags.

The other person I talked to said he took the complaints as he would any complaint about another service provider, with a grain of salt. Anyone working in social services understands there is always a percentage of the people you serve who will not be happy. But with Glacier Hope Homes, he said, from his perspective it became more than just the normal percentage of unhappy customers making complaints.

I made sure to let both the people I talked to know about the recent comments that suddenly appeared last month at 4&20 Blackbirds. I emphasized that this rash of commentary allegedly comes from someone who works for Glacier Hope Homes. You can find the whole rant at the first link, but here’s a taste:

You’re nothing but a bunch of psychotic,druggie,alcoholic disgruntled and discharged veterans and bad businessmen who had ill intentions for your donations to our organization and lack of control of our daily organizational functions. That’s what we have Board Members for. That’s what we have a staff for. Our donors who have gone rogue on us in the past, have no say, nor any authority to determine, who we house or hire onto our staff.

It’s language like this that makes me hope some serious scrutiny gets directed at Glacier Hope Homes. I am in contact with one of the commenters at the original post at 4&20 Blackbirds, but if anyone else wants to contact me, hit me up here: willskink at yahoo dot com.

I know the Missoulian can’t cover a story like this, especially after getting Gulledged by an editorial move that cuts more staff and reduces the capacity to create local content, but I would think some journalist out there may be interested in looking into this.

Did I mention Steve Daines made an appearance at Glacier Hope Homes in August of 2015?