Yesterday, for Earth Day, I returned to a once-contentious spot in the Missoula valley where upwards of 100 people used to live. The first contacts I had with people living “un-housed” under and around the Reserve Street bridge by the Clark Fork river occurred nearly 15 years ago, when I worked for the non-profit listed beneath the NO TRESPASSING part of the signage above.
After I left my position at the Poverello Center in 2016, the energy and collaboration I had put into making inroads toward addressing this sprawling mess fizzled out. While I could understand the political impediments to doing something effective, it has taken a lot more time to understand the law enforcement dynamics at play.
For an idea of what things looked like in 2022, here are some images I curated from my camera roll:
And here are some pictures from Earth Day, 2026:
So, what’s the cost?
In April of 2022, in a post titled “I Told You, I Told You, I Told You, But NOOOOOOO, You Do This Shit Anyway” I was already harping on things like the porous fencing, the legal scapegoat of the “9th circuit court” used by the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, and the unfortunate role of “soccer ball” that Bob Vosen, from the Montana Department of Transportation, was having to play.
In May of 2023, in a post titled “Exploring The Possibility I Was Wrong About Private Security Patrols Around The Poverello Center“, I acknowledged that direct conversations and new information could shift my thinking on previous stances I had maintained–specifically, as the title of the post suggests, on the role of the private security company, Rogers International.
So, again, what’s the cost? The cost, as I see it, is about $163,000 for the fencing, plus however much the state contract for Rogers International is per year, plus the public cost of being deprived convenient access to public lands, where one still finds “tools”, like machetes.
And relatively new syringes.
And fresh graffiti, perhaps honoring Detective Guy Baker’s retirement.
I have one more picture, but the context won’t be explicitly stated in this post. The context does exist in another post, but to get it you have to click the link, read the post, then connect the dots, like I do every day at great risk for no pay.
To wrap this post up I curated an amazingly sexist and intolerant comment from the Facebook page where this cleanup was promoted. Just send the men to Seattle!
Hopefully Sarah appreciates the fact only men showed up yesterday in the rain to put trash into trash bags, including some trash from feminine hygiene products left out in nature to poison poor Mother Earth’s watery tributaries. One of the men (me) was even homeless himself for several months!
I am inserting Sarah’s oblivious misandry toward men at the end of this post because there does seem to be a gendered component of the predominant POLICY problem of “urban camping”, and that component is TOXIC EMPATHY.
Despite this component, and the prevalence of women in local policy-shaping positions, the only County Commissioner to get hands dirty with an up-close look at the Reserve Street camps was Juanita Vero, so her example of rolling up sleeves and getting to work reminds me that not all people with the double-X chromosome set should be sheltered in huts like little babies when the going gets tough.
Thanks for reading!