Missoula City Councilor Questions Carlino’s Stance on Shelter

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Ward 4 Missoula City Councilor Mike Nugent appeared on the KGVO Talk Back show on Wednesday to campaign for reelection, and the conversation quickly turned to the future of the Johnson Street Shelter.

Nugent said for the past three years the shelter has delayed the revitalization of the Montana Rail Link Park development.

City Councilor Mike Nugent Discusses the Future of the Johnson Street Shelter

“Two years ago, I wrote a referral at city council that basically said the city has to start the master planning process and commit to tearing this building down within three years,” began Nugent. “The reason I did that is because the MRA (Missoula Redevelopment Agency)  invested in that building to develop that area for the community, for the neighborhood. Part of what they did was to put Rail Link Park in there, and the next phase of that was to basically revitalize and reuse what they purchased right there.”

Looking to the future of the area, Nugent said there are plans in place to help those who have used the shelter to transition into a better, more permanent opportunity.

Nugent Supports Mayor Davis' Housing Sprint program

“I will say that I am very excited that Mayor (Andrea) Davis and our city staff have come up with this ‘housing sprint’ that they're working on now, because it's the first time that, I think in quite a while, that the city of Missoula has said, rather than just kind of throwing the same money at the crisis year after year, let's see if we can do a push to help people get out of this and not just have this kind of situation where it's a low barrier shelter and there's not much incentive for people to take steps to move on from it.”

Nugent expanded on the ideas put forth to provide more permanent solutions for those who have used the shelter in the past.

“There are definitely people who have been there several nights every year that it's been open, and we ask, ‘what are we doing to kind of get better outcomes?’,” he said  “So I'm excited to see the housing sprint saying ‘hey, let's try and reunite people with family’. Let's see if somebody who's already has some level of income coming in, whether they have a job, because several people who are there do have jobs, or they're receiving government assistance in some way, can we figure out what the barrier is to getting them into an apartment? There have been early successes in some of that work, but more to come. But I'm excited that we're doing something different.”

Nugent Disagrees with Fellow City Councilor Daniel Carlino on the Shelter

Nugent referenced an editorial put forth by his fellow City Councilor Daniel Carlino, who advocated to keep the shelter open; an idea Nugent rejects.

“Councilman Carlino wrote an editorial that basically said, ‘the city council can't afford to close Johnson Street’, and I don't agree with that,” he said. “I think that the national statistics around the type of shelter that Johnson street said the people who are running it are doing the best they can in the circumstances, but it's not creating positive outcomes for the neighborhood. It's not creating positive outcomes for the community, and it's not creating positive outcomes for the people who are staying there long term.”

Click below to listen to the entire conversation with Nugent, who is running for his second four-year term as a City Councilor in Ward 4.