Last week Missoula County gave $10,000 dollars to a Christian organization to help the homeless, but can they actually help?
Calling it a team effort, Missoula County on Tuesday freed up a $10,000 grant to help the Missoula Interfaith Collaborative provide shelter to homeless individuals when winter weather conditions warrant it.
County officials praised the funding as a more cost-effective way to address needs in the homeless population when compared to the cost of building and maintaining a multi-million shelter.
When I worked at the Poverello Center (2008-2016) I had plenty of interactions with well-meaning Christians who just wanted to help, and sometimes they did. Sometimes, though, I would start seeing hints of ulterior motives, and even had to terminate a staff member because he was inappropriately trying to “save” a lesbian client.
The creation of the Missoula Interfaith Collaborative was done with my help, something Casey Dunning should appreciate now that he’s become such a well-established non-profit in a community BURSTING with non-profits, but MIC is different. With their Christian superpowers of forgivingness, I was impressed to see that “Missoula Works” employs JD Partain, the “Christian” man who was arrested and convicted of secretly recording his adopted daughter for his own sexual gratification.
Here are some of the articles I wrote about this at the time:
Is There A Mark Ebner In Missoula Getting Ready For An I Told You So Tour? (November 30th, 2022)
The Tune Has Changed For J.D. Partain And Here Are My Insights From His Arraignment (December 13th, 2022)
A Judge, A Perv, And The Joke We Call Justice (November 2nd, 2023)
And here is Partain’s name from the Missoula Interfaith Collaborative, where JD gets to work with marginalized populations. Is that wise?
Get It Done manager? I guess that foster child ministry thing didn’t work out?
Another red flag person’s situation that I became aware of recently involves a former staff member of the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS), run by the Union Gospel Mission.
When April Seat was handing out untraceable gift cards to homeless people, I started hearing rumors about April taking advantage of her position, financially. When April’s son, Dylan, was alleged to be involved in the death of Joey Thompson, I got VERY curious about this “service provider” with a nice sob-story that local Christians LOVE to eat up like its gospel (pun fucking intended).
Here are the stories I wrote regarding Joey’s “accidental” drowning death:
Some Curious Things NOT Happening In The Joey Thompson Missing Person Case (May 5th, 2023)
Who Knows What Happened to Joey Thompson? (May 15th, 2023)
We Adults Are Failing The Friends Of Joey Thompson (May 20th, 2023)
Who Found Joey Thompson’s Body In The Clark Fork River, And Where? (June 19th, 2023)
Joey Thompson’s Death Certificate Information Has Finally Been Released, Now What? (June 29th, 2023)
The Christian LifeGuards Who Dodge And Block On Social Media Need To Be Reminded About Joey (March 25th, 2024)
It was in the post from 2024 where I finally stated that I had sources who claimed the Chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, Lowell Hochhalter, insinuated April and her son were involved in Joey’s death:
Does Lowell REALLY understand limitations, like the limitation of CONFIDENTIAL criminal justice information? No, I don’t think he does, and that’s where his alleged conversation with a member of Joey Thompson’s family comes into play–something I was told about last year by this family member.
What was I told? Well, according to the family member, Lowell told them he thought a woman’s kid was involved in Joey’s death, and that the kid’s mom helped him cover up what happened. Since I’ve heard MORE stories about how this woman may have taken advantage of her position working with vulnerable people at the Transitional Safe Outdoor Space, I’m going to name her AND her kid, who I believe is technically an adult now.
So, what’s April Seat up to now? Are churches, like the River of Life, helping her out, since she’s apparently “contracting” with the Union Gospel Mission now instead of being directly employed?
These posts were later removed, but not before a fellow skeptic of the Homeless Industrial Complex documented them for posterity.
Before I beg YOU READERS for money, there’s one more case I want to mention where a well-meaning Christian woman put herself repeatedly in proximity to a very mentally ill man and, eventually, something bad happened to her. The man was then sent to prison, where bad things happened to HIM. And the result? The largest settlement ever paid out:
From a homeless encampment on the Clark Fork River in Missoula to a private prison in northern Montana, it hasn’t been a pleasant journey for Nathaniel Lake, according to court documents.
On April 24, a federal jury awarded Lake $27.75 million in damages against CoreCivic, Inc., the private prison company that operates Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, Montana.
…
The verdict concludes a sordid trip through the legal system for Lake, who was convicted of attempted sexual intercourse without consent when he allegedly assaulted a volunteer working to help the homeless in Missoula.
That conviction was overturned in 2019, a year after Lake was viciously beaten by another inmate at Crossroads.
If anyone involved in managing Nathan Lake’s money would like to hire me to ghost-write his story, and the larger story of the Homeless Industrial Complex’s failure via EVERY institution, political party, and religion known to man, I’m totally available. And if YOU would like to give me money, please do so here.
If you would like a more direct line of support, stay tuned, I’m hoping to announce the location of my MLK day fundraiser tomorrow.
Thanks for reading!