by Travis Mateer
Yesterday I shared something from the Poverello Center on Facebook, but today I see the content isn’t available. Is my former employer taking the Ellie Boldman approach to blocking me and hoping this community continues ignoring what I say about the Homeless Industrial Complex?
Tomorrow, at Western Montana News, my profile on Ellie Boldman will hit, and I hope it hits hard. If I had the resources to better defend myself against the shit this State Senator is shoveling at me, I would, but I think the TRUTH is potent enough to counter the bullshit this Senator rolls around in.
The above Tweet from Ellie reminds me of a story I heard during my first year at the Poverello Center. I was training with our direct staff at the time on an overnight shift, and we were talking about the difficulty of maintaining our ZERO TOLERANCE policy for being under the influence of alcohol. Some of this difficulty came from the director herself, Ellie, and her selective support of this critical rule intended to keep residents and staff safe, since we didn’t have the appropriate space or training to do otherwise.
How did Ellie undermine her own staff? The story I was told included a well-known street character, now dead, who went by Eric “The Black”. Eric was almost always drunk, so he wasn’t allowed to stay at the shelter, but one night Ellie ran into him downtown, and she used her director position to call the staff member on shift that night, and she told him to let Eric stay despite the fact he was drunk.
Was Ellie under the influence of alcohol that night? I won’t hazard speculation on that question. Instead, I’ll bring in some perspective from Reddit, where this thread has some possible insight into Ellie’s alcohol use.
Here’s the story that opens the thread:
And here’s some responses:
Until I came along, these stories wafted out of anonymous accounts because of legitimate fear of retaliation, especially after a Forward Montana intern committed suicide in 2019. Is the fact I talk about these stories under my real name now the reason I got depicted like this from our State Senator?
Do I feel honored to have such desperate enemies throwing anything they can at me as I simply string words together based on may experiences and investigations? Yes, yes I do.
If you would like to support an uncompromising Gonzo journalist, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is the current place to do it online, or you can find me under a bridge in Missoula, possibly playing with Legos.
Thanks for reading!