My No Camp Missoula Community Outreach Chat

The people who don’t want “urban camping” to be established at their little park near the South Hills are trying to get up to speed regarding the homeless conversation, which has been going on FOR YEARS. After my chat with Doc Moore and a few fellow supporters of NO CAMPING MISSOULA on Sunday, I’m bewildered how these citizens have remained SO IGNORANT about this issue for as long as they have.

Being ignorant about how their park became a potential location for urban camping is actually spelled out at their website (emphasis mine):

Some of us were made aware of the new ordinance and what it would allow when outhouses were delivered at our parks, and it was communicated by city leaders that refuse boxes for needles would soon be arriving for installation. We also were suddenly made aware (August 14, 2024) that camping was being allowed in affected parks as of July 25, 2024, and our neighborhoods were depicted on maps on the city’s website, along with unenforceable camping guidelines available for broad distribution, that targeted affected residential areas and properties. We believe the uncertainty this ordinance creates for our parks and neighborhoods regarding public safety and property value is overwhelming. While Mayor Davis, members of the City Council and other interested members of the public believe they undertook a lengthy, inclusive, and transparent process when developing and passing this ordinance, it is abundantly clear to us that a significant portion of the Missoula population that could be impacted by the ordinance has little awareness of how and why they might be affected. We continue to encounter new folks every day that have no idea this is going on right now in their community.

I can confirm that Doc Moore and the other three people listening to my spiel on Sunday morning were all VERY unaware of ALL KINDS of things, so I did my best to educate them about the organized criminal elements operating within the “urban camping” infrastructure being created by our Homeless Industrial Complex benefactors, like United Way of Missoula County, and the larger inability of our criminal justice system to deal with the chronic issues I dealt with during my tenure working at the Poverello Center (2008-2016).

I also explained how easily their group would be depicted as dumb NIMBY conservatives by local media. When Doc told me his group “wasn’t political” I had a good laugh before telling this former REPUBLICAN legislator that EVERY BREATH WE TAKE right now is political, so don’t pretend like this issue will be any different.

Since scrutiny will eventually come to this group I suggested they be VERY CAREFUL about allowing violent rhetoric on their Facebook page, like when “Gray Mat” suggested that members of this group go out and start shooting homeless people.

Gray Mat is obviously an agitator of some sort who is using violent rhetoric to get a reaction from people assumed to be dumb and conservative. As you can see from the comment, Gray Mat is eager to play the victim card for ALL the urban campers who, according to this commenter, are merely trying to survive. This is the type of ignorance I see from the OTHER SIDE of the political divide, where victim status is almost like a divine designation.

A few weeks ago I watched a desperate father from Eastern Washington address a different local Facebook group about his adult daughter who, because of drug abuse, has descended into a life of homelessness and sexual exploitation. According to this father, the gang she has been running with engages in widespread theft in Missoula, then fences the items in Pasco, which is a part of the Tri-Cities area.

Since I wrote about Pasco last September, I became VERY interested in what this father had to say, like how his daughter got picked up by the FBI at the beginning of the month, but only AFTER this father started making noice on social media. Before her arrest, Dad was being told that his daughter, who had left her three children in Washington without a mom, was doing just fine on the streets of Missoula, and if he tried to intervene then HE WOULD BE ARRESTED for felony kidnapping.

Monte Shaide, with the FBI, is the name listed as the arresting officer on Taylor Penny’s jail listing, so that seems to back up the claims Dad was making about the nature of the criminal activity his daughter had gotten involved in. This Dad also had NOTHING GOOD TO SAY about my former employer, the Poverello Center, and what they might be doing or NOT doing to help their clients.

As a reminder, even local media recently published claims about the Pov and their staff being involved in illicit drug activity (emphasis mine):

Trustee went on to tell MTN that over the years the center has stopped providing many resources, whether that be meals, clothing, water or cleaning the porta potties outside the center.

“They want us out of sight, out of mind.”

On top of the seeming lack of care for those in and outside the shelter, Trustee also claimed that staff at the Poverello Center are siphoning off donations — like a $120,000 check — and are abusing substances like meth themselves.

Trustee claimed that he witnessed staff unload a truck full of donated items and take some things home with them. He also claimed that he had witnessed staff members picking up meth paraphernalia only to be later seen being used by the same staff members.

Because of her ongoing legal issues, Dad decided NOT to talk to me about his daughter’s plight, which I understand. He is probably hoping against hope that his grandkids will get their mother back, because if they don’t, the trauma of having a mom succumb to the world of drug abuse and predation will have lasting effects.

To all the liberal women in positions of influence in Missoula, I have a question: is THIS the kind of life you want to enable for Taylor Penny? Because this is the kind of life YOU ARE enabling when you control narratives around homelessness and attack truth tellers like ME for raising the alarm FOR FUCKING YEARS about this bullshit and where it’s all leading.

If wasn’t banned from attending City Council meetings by a Municipal Court judge I have previously written about, I would attend the October meeting where the urban camping ordinance will be discussed. Here’s a message from City Council person, Bob Campbell, about this upcoming meeting:

Councilwoman Vasecka and I have agreed to reset consideration of an amendment to the City’s Urban Camping Ordinance. The amendment for consideration will exclude city parks as authorized camping sites.

The matter will be heard before the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, October 23rd at a time TBD, although times usually run between 9am and 3pm. After this, the matter would then go to the full City Council the following Monday, October 28th at 6pm.

It was decided to push this back from the original September 11th date due mainly to the slow roll-out of the ordinance and in order to better determine the efficacy of enforcement or lack thereof. Although successful, consistent enforcement is always the expectation – it would be the ability to directly measure and illustrate a failure of enforcement that would necessitate this amendment, and increase the likelihood of successfully passing such an amendment.

Another update will be sent out as the October 23rd hearing approaches. Committee schedules are usually posted the preceding Friday.

Best regards,
Bob

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Thanks for reading!