If Wasting Time Was The Goal, Then Missoula’s Urban Camping Working Group Was A GREAT Success!

by Travis Mateer

The signage pictured above is from May of 2021, when Parks and Rec closed down the West Broadway Island for “environmental remediation”. I’m making note of the year for a specific reason, and that specific reason is to ensure the urban camping situation along West Broadway isn’t blamed on the closing of the Reserve Street encampments, since BOTH areas were serious problems back in 2021.

Now it’s 2024 and Missoula’s new Mayor, Andrea Davis, wanted a working group, so that’s what she got. And the result? Here’s the result:

From the link (emphasis mine):

The goal of the group is to come up with recommended actionable items to send to City Council for a possible ordinance.

With this being the last work group meeting, many expected to see clear-cut recommendations from the group, which wasn’t necessary the case.

“Lets try some things out. If they don’t work, let’s course correct. Let’s be transparent about what did work, what didn’t, but doing nothing isn’t an option,” Davis said.

One of the problems I have identified with this “working” group is the quality of “experts” they invited to be a part of this conversation, like the “houseless” tokens used by our elected leaders to show how goddamn inclusive they are.

Yesterday’s post highlighted Brad’s story, and today’s post is going to focus on Tully’s story, since this houseless dude and the shanty town he started building was one of the reasons the Authorized Camping Site near Walmart failed.

Before getting to that, here’s Tully complaining about a lack of progress from the NBC Montana article:

“I do have hope there is going to be progress in this. We’re getting down to the nitty-gritty of coming to a decisive conclusion on what needs to be done. I do think all of this should’ve been addressed two or three years ago,” homeless work group member Tully Sanem said.

Now, let’s contrast this statement by Tully Sanem with what he was complaining about two years ago when I wrote this post (emphasis mine):

The destruction of the structures presented a significant financial loss to campers like Sanem, who invested almost $800 into pallets, nails and tools to build a sturdy apparatus.

“I wanted a structure because I don’t want to be huddling up in five blankets when it’s 15 degrees outside,” he said. “I go out, and I work, and I contribute, and I engage in commerce and I help so many people out. I should not have to live in squalor.”

Beyond the immediate security a structure provided to Sanem, he wanted to use the stability of the building to build a foundation for a better life.

“That’s what you need, a foundation,” he said.

He hoped to build up the structure and use it as a base of operations to potentially start a small business or nonprofit building crafts with the other residents of the Authorized Camping Site.

“I wanted to make it a home because everybody wants a home,” he said.

The situation is especially frustrating, Sanem noted, because he checked with authorities at the camp before moving in about six weeks ago.

“We all had the understanding we could do whatever we wanted to do,” he said.

Yes, you read that correctly, this “houseless” dude spent nearly $800 hundred dollars that SHOULD HAVE gone toward appropriate housing, but since Tully’s understanding was “we could do whatever we wanted to do,” he did something quite stupid, and the result is that his situation years later HAS NOT improved.

When I looked up Tully’s name I found another article from last year that highlights how this Iowa man, who has been in and out of Missoula since 2000, can’t figure his shit out. From the link:

The first thing Tully Sanem mentions is the breeze. It’s July, and the heat and sunshine have been unrelenting for the past few days. “I don’t have any place to go and sit in air conditioning,” he said.

Sanem has lived in Missoula on and off since 2000. Originally from Iowa, his housing has varied during that time. At one point he owned a modest home, but he’s been living out of his car for the last three years. He works odd jobs as a carpenter and builder when he can, but he hasn’t been able to save enough to afford the rising rents in Missoula.

Later in the article the specific program that Tully thought was a shanty town free-for-all, therefore helped contribute to its closer, is referenced. Isn’t that ironic? (emphasis mine):

Missoula has experienced a surge in the cost of living since the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult for people to afford housing. As a result, the number of people experiencing homelessness has swelled, prompting the city to spend one-time federal money on several attempted solutions. In 2022, it opened an emergency Authorized Camp Site on Reserve Street that it then closed, citing budget limitations and difficulty managing the health and safety of the space, in favor of a winter shelter on Johnson Street. The shelter provided an additional 150 beds, but it was closed for the season in March.

Upon the closure, most people who relied on it for shelter were left without a place to go. The year-round Poverello Center is almost always filled to capacity overnight. Dozens of people — “urban campers,” they’ve been called — started sleeping in parks, on trails or under bridges, and city officials started fielding an unprecedented number of complaints.

Last June, Mayoral candidate, Shawn Knopp, thought bringing back the Authorized Camping Site was a good idea, but since people like Tully had turned it into a shanty town shit-show (which local law enforcement nicknamed the THUNDERDOME), I said NOT SO FAST.

If you’re not deeply annoyed and disillusioned yet by all this bullshit, then let me explain what happens next now that this working group is done working. What happens next is the 25 hours this group met will be turned into municipal propaganda, and that process is expected to take up to TWO MONTHS. Isn’t that hilarious? (emphasis mine):

Most of the work group couldn’t come to a general agreement on the vision and guiding principles in the last meeting.

Next up, the meeting’s facilitator will write up a summary and send it to the group. A minority group will also prepare a report, and then it will all be sent to the city to start work on a draft ordinance.

When we asked Davis when we can expect to see a proposed policy draft from the work group’s recommendations, she said there was no set date, but it most likely will be a couple months before council sees it.

This stupid timeline will take us straight to the heart of summer, a magical time in Montana when NO ONE is really paying attention to municipal bullshit, so I suspect that’s a function, not a bug. Because really, how long does it take to boil down 25 hours of shrugging shoulders and complaining about having NO location for another authorized camping site and NO funding to fund it if they did?

To wrap this up, I ran across an op-ed recently by some former elected officials in Missoula opposing a study to assess local government. Their argument? Missoula’s local government is doing JUST FINE.

I appreciate this “viewpoint” because it exemplifies how former Mayors, like Mike Kadas and Daniel Kemmis, have laid a retarded foundation of blaming others to avoid accountability for anything our local government might do.

Here’s the money shot from the article (emphasis mine):

At the city level, we do not support commissioning a study. While our city government certainly faces some major challenges, those are either of a national scale (as with homelessness) or the result of poor state policy (as with property taxes.) Changing the form of city government will not solve these problems.

Yes, this is the main blueprint for our retarded “leaders” because it works amazingly well. Have a problem? Then blame either STATE government, or the Feds. What a bunch of fucking losers.

Too bad these losers have control over YOUR tax money, and if you don’t like it? Tough shit.

Today and tomorrow is “Missoula gives” when local non-profits panhandle citizens for donations. If you’d like to give theses bib-less babies a message, how about sending a donation to MY effort to raise money, which is Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF)?

Or maybe you’d prefer to purchase some helpful items for our local non-profit influencers. Here’s a good gift idea!

Thanks for reading!