Montana News
Lawsuit over Kalispell shelter could set national precedent, shelter's lawyer says
With Montana News, I'm Elinor Smith. A homeless shelter in Calaspel is taking the city to court after the city council revoked its permit to operate. Montana Public Radio's Erin Bolton reports the shelter's lawyers expect this to be an important case nationally. Last month, the Calaspel City Council revoked the Flathead Warming Center's permit because neighbors and businesses argued the shelter increased crime and the presence of homeless people. At a press conference outside the shelter, its director, Tanya Horn, rejected that argument. - If you think that we enable people with shelter here at the warming center, that is because you don't go us and you don't know the people that we serve. - She says people will die if the shelter isn't able to open its doors this winter. They offer 50 beds per night and often turn people away because they are full. - Jeff Rose is an attorney with the Institute for Justice, a national law firm that seeks out cases that can set national legal precedent. Rose says this case is the next frontier after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in the Grants Pass case. That allowed cities to ban sleeping in public. - If the government can criminalize sleeping on public property, the city of Calaspel can't destroy the right of private property owners to shelter the homeless on their private property at night. - The case is filed in the U.S. District Court in Missoula. Rose argues the city council's decision is unconstitutional on many grounds. He says the city council didn't follow a set process to revoke the shelter's permit and that it arbitrarily treated the shelter differently than other private property owners because it serves homeless people. The shelter is asking the court for an emergency order that will allow it to stay open while the case plays out. That decision could happen within the next week. Rose expects the case to take a year or more and says he's prepared to go all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary. Calaspel City Manager Doug Russell declined to comment citing the litigation. In Columbia Falls, I'm Aaron Bolton.