The Poverello Center’s Failed Good Neighbor Policy – by Travis Mateer

As the first and most effective coordinator of the Poverello’s Homeless Outreach Team, I was instrumental in helping transition the notorious shelter from downtown Missoula, where business leaders were VERY EAGER to see us move, to its current location on West Broadway.

To engineer community acceptance of this move, we used the National Coalition Building Institute and its director at the time, Amie Thurber, turned her work on this project into her master thesis, titled “Housing A Homeless Shelter: A Case Study In Community Deliberation”. Here’s a quote from Thurber’s dissertation (PDF) describing the effort to convince this neighborhood that the problems they are experiencing now wouldn’t be happening:

Theories of deliberative democracy have a number of strengths when applied to settings of community conflict. Deliberative processes may legitimize decision making; even when people object to the final outcome, they are more likely to accept decisions if their perspectives have been thoughtfully considered (Freeman, 2000; Guntmann & Thompson, 2004). Further, the deliberative process is consistent with democratic values. In seeking perspectives from those who will be impacted by the decision – as opposed to simply imposing a decision – a group, organization, and/or government demonstrates respect for its members. Further, when members thoughtfully consider one another’s positions, they demonstrate respect for one another (Guntmann & Thompson, 2004).

It wasn’t easy convincing community members that we would be good neighbors, but with Amie Thurber’s ability to systematically create the illusion that local leaders were NOT just pleasing the downtown business community by shifting this problem to a poorer part of town, the initial move appeared, at first, to be a huge propaganda success, accomplished in 4 key phases of manipulation:

NCBI launched a four-phase process. First, we completed an assessment through individual interviews and focus groups. Second, we facilitated an open community meeting that focused on creating opportunities for participants to share with and learn from one another. Third, we led a work group process where a small group of representatives from various stakeholder groups vetted specific sites. Finally, we facilitated a final open community meeting where the public deliberated site alternatives before the Poverello Center made its final decision.

Since none of the other locations were really viable, my perspective on this process is that it was mostly performative–what Epstein’s pal, Noam Chomsky, might call “manufacturing consent”–and guess what? For awhile, it worked!

Unfortunately, reality caught up to my former employer, and now they are deploying a strategic face to do the first round of damage control.

Emily Gibson, formerly Emily Bentley, is the wife of Matt Gibson (killer of Missoula’s alt-weekly), and it was Emily who stepped up to the mic on Wednesday, not the person actually running the shelter. I guess Jill Bonny, who Council was told had other meetings to attend, couldn’t clear her schedule to make a direct plea to keep over $200,000 in city taxpayer money.

The first clip above features Emily Gibson’s stuttering defense of the program I effectively led from 2010 to when I left my position in February of 2016. The second clip below features claims of cleanups and a description of the failed “good neighbor policy” that I was responsible for instituting during my time working at the shelter.

When I walked the West Broadway Island on Thursday, just one day after Emily Gibson successfully defended Bob Campbell’s defunding attempt, what I found included needles in proximity to bullet casings and shotgun shells, burned grass, and some books for those idle hours NOT completely high on drugs.

Is this ok?

Needles, bullets, books, stuffed animals, and a rainbow slinky. This is the kind of trash one finds in a retarded town like Missoula.

As a practicing trash alchemist, I am able to take pieces of trash and make fascinating connections, like finding a piece of discarded mail to give me a better idea of who is living out here, which could come in handy in cases of murder and arson.

Willing to pay it forward? How about just cleanup after yourself, Candise, so that the 80,000 other people living in this valley don’t have risk their health taking a walk by the fucking river?

For a more visceral feel for what it’s like to be in closer proximity to my former employer, here’s a brief clip I recorded yesterday of me on my bike listening to a woman scream FUCKING FAGGOT while walking from Hawthorn street to Cedar street, where Bob Campbell warned citizens in this town NOT to go on Wednesday.

One of the most shocking parts of the conversation about my former program, though, got framed as an example of SUCCESS, and that’s the role of delivering meds, including anti-psychotic medication, to homeless people all around Missoula.

Are you fucking kidding me?

At risk of stating the obvious (because maybe it’s not obvious to functional idiots), holding other people’s medication–ESPECIALLY if any of that medication can be abused recreationally–is not just DANGEROUS, it’s legally dubious, and not something that should be done unless part of a very specific treatment plan with an end-goal of getting someone OUT of the situation they’re in.

Also, if you are employing “peer support”, meaning someone in recovery working with other addicts, this could have VERY BAD effects, as evidenced by two people I’ve unfortunately covered recently, one of whom I connected to the death of Joey Thompson three years ago.

I agree with Bob Campbell that actions speak louder than words, so as words continue bouncing around virtual spaces about how awful and disgusting I am, the evidence proving the accuracy of my warnings continues to mount.

So donate if you can, and thanks for reading.