Month: July 2021

by Travis Mateer

Since I’m still on the road with the fam, this post will be quick. I probably wouldn’t even have written this if I hadn’t been unable to sleep in the middle of the night, leading me to poke around the Missoula County website.

Under the “Community” tab you can find a list of people directing the County’s version of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, which goes by the name Missoula Development Authority. When I come across lists like this one, I like to do simple searches on the names to see what comes up.

When I searched Burt Caldwell + Missoula I got this post by Greg Strandberg (one of our four mayoral candidates) about some seemingly shady dealings involving Burt Caldwell and his daughter, Lauren Caldwell, regarding some subsidized housing.

The post is a great piece of research that exemplifies how the politically connected roll in towns like Missoula. A commenter even added this link (pdf) which further shows how Lauren Caldwell has benefited from housing programs.

Lauren Caldwell now works for the Montana Federation of Public Employees.

There is much more I’d like to include in this post, but I’ll have to leave it here for now.

by Travis Mateer

This week’s episode is a recording I made last week of a longer poem I wrote back in December. I decided to share it after seeing a tweet about the need for a generational update of Ginsberg’s poem, Howl.

Now, I’m not arrogant enough to be making the claim that’s what this poem is, partly because I have a MUCH DIFFERENT perspective on what the beatniks actually contributed to our culture than many artists who still venerate that time period.

I am, however, confident enough in my poetic skills to make the claim that my poetry is a unique documentation of this crazy time period we are experiencing.

So take it for what it’s worth.

by Travis Mateer

Today’s post will be brief, as I’m currently in a rainforest near the ocean. We arrived on July 3rd after a 12 hour car ride from Missoula. Apparently we are outside the blazing heat dome baking the Pacific Northwest, because last night (as celebrating freedom sounded indistinguishable from war) I experienced the strange sensation of being cold.

A year ago I drunkenly declared my intention to stop pounding box wine. Over the years my relationship to alcohol had become an unhealthy dependency that I realized needed to change. It was no longer a tool to lubricate my creativity (one of the more enduring rationalizations I told myself).

Today I can say it’s been a full calendar year since I took my last drink of booze. Since that time last summer I’ve lost over 50 pounds and have never felt less in need of Big Pharma interventions to bolster my health. Even my digestive problems have mostly cleared up.

Taking more active measures to improve my health highlights how incredibly UNHEALTHY our society has become. In America, we are consumers first, and THAT is the primary value we hold for the predator class. If they can’t extract profit from us, then we run the risk of being seen by these predators as useless eaters.

Tomorrow I’ll post a pre-recorded reading of a poem I wrote last December for this week’s episode of Zoom Town. The text of the poem will be available for subscribers of my Substack. Then, for the rest of the week, any subsequent posts will be brief.

Thanks for tuning in.

by Travis Mateer

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to write a letter of support for someone trying to get into housing. This man has been staying at the Poverello Center for years because his offender status from an old statutory rape charge is a significant barrier, but with a new caseworker from Winds of Change, maybe he finally has a chance.

This morning I read an email response from the caseworker about the chaotic dynamics she is witnessing outside her workplace because Winds of Change has its office space in a building right across from the Poverello Center. I was recently in this area speaking with Mayoral candidate Shawn Knopp, who works at Montana Glass, so I know what she’s talking about.

Here is a quote from the caseworker’s email to me: “I’ve seen stuff that is appalling going on between the Winds of Change building and the Pov. I’ve been so shocked and appalled I have no idea even how to respond or what to say.”

After reading this caseworker’s email, I was scanning local headlines for what to write about today when I saw that a male caseworker from Winds of Change had a knife pulled him by a client on Tuesday. Here is a portion of that story:

Officers spoke to the victim at Winds of Change. He was sitting down and was noticeably upset. His voice was broken and shook when he began to tell what happened.

“Staff escorted Neil out of the building because they were concerned for the safety of those around Neil,” Arnold said. “Neil produced a knife and threatened a staff member with it. Neil was located a short time later by officers. He was taken into custody and a knife was located on his person. No person was injured during the incident.”

On his way out of the building, Neil shoved another patient out of his way. The victim followed Neil outside to make sure he left. Neil continued to be “super aggressive” and called the victim a “Mother F****r”. Neil was also punching his bike and picking it up and throwing it at Lu and the victim.

At one point, the victim became concerned for Lu’s safety and stepped in front of her while putting his arm out to keep Neil away. Neil then took out a knife and came at the victim. The victim said he thought Neil was going to kill him. The victim felt that he needed to defend himself and started to go after Neil, but Neil then took off.

Another staffer said she had let people into the business and locked the doors behind them twice during the incident. The staffer said she was also concerned for Lu’s safety, who left with Neil after the incident. The staffer said Neil was acting aggressive earlier in the day and she knew he was on meth.

I know exactly how unsettling a situation like this can be because I’ve been in similar situations with unstable homeless clients threatening me with knives. It’s not just unsettling, it’s traumatic, and it’s a big reason why support staff, like case management, has a VERY HIGH turnover rate.

In the email I was asked if I had any ideas on how to help the situation at the shelter. My response is we need accountability at the top regarding Missoula’s immense failure known as the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, starting with the leadership at United Way of Missoula County.

Until that happens, we won’t be able to have an honest conversation about why Missoula’s 10 year plan to end homelessness is such a monumental failure.

by Travis Mateer

When I was a student at the University of Montana, I walked or biked down the Kim Williams trail whenever I needed a little break from classes. The trail takes you into the Hellgate canyon, so the area is fairly narrow, with a steep rock face to the south, and the Clark Fork river to the north.

When I worked at the Poverello Center, I became aware of this area being used by homeless people. During the summer of 2014, a young man by the name of Kevin Lino was living in this area when a fire started, causing his little gang of street kids to relocate to the Reserve Street area.

Then, in July of 2014, Kevin Lino and another man beat, tortured and executed Jack Berry with a single gunshot to the head before dumping his body into the river. I was involved in helping the Sheriff’s department with the investigation because I spoke with Jack’s girlfriend on the day Jack’s body was found by a fisherman.

Why am I telling this story now?

The Kim Williams area is back in the news because a bear was recently seen rummaging through a tent. The woman who was startled by this bear, Sherene Aun, actually works with homeless people as a mental health advocate, but she seems pretty naive about the notion of cleaning up this area. She called around, as did NBC Montana, only to have the city of Missoula point the proverbial finger at FWP and Parks and Rec:

We reached out to the City who says FWP is who deals with bears, and the City’s Parks and Recreation department removes abandoned camping gear when they’re notified of it.

FWP says there’s one best solution for the safety of campers and trail-goers.

“I would like the city to clean up the camp,” said Jonkel.

As for Aun, she believes the City should take preventative action before someone else isn’t as lucky as she was.

“This is more of a public safety issue that would need to be addressed and I would hate for it to end up as a mauling or a death and then action,” said Aun.

It’s cute that Aun thinks this should be considered a public safety issue and that authorities should therefore do something about it. Maybe the Incident Command Team will address this as part of their mandate to address homelessness in Missoula. If someone would call me back from the ICT (after I called and left a message on Monday) then I’ll ask them about this.

So stay tuned…