A federal judge on Wednesday opted not to extend a ban that prevents Sacramento from relocating homeless encampments. The city can now resume its sweeps on Friday.
Opening several authorized camp sites for the homeless in city parks and vacant lots in each of Missoula's six voting wards would provide some homeless residents a “place to exist,” one City Council member argued on Wednesday.
Ginny Merrian writes, "The shelter opening has been widely covered by Missoula’s news reporters. While it seems like a long time since the mayor’s emergency announcement, it has been short in logistics time."
After a second week of debate and accusations of a poorly planned process, the Missoula City Council on Wednesday voted 6-3 to approve the operational contract to run the Johnson Street shelter for a full year.
Tents and trash line streets, public drug use has skyrocketed since the state decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs in 2020 with the city experiencing record-breaking numbers of homicides in the past three years.
Concerns over drug use, security and lack of communication related to the Johnson Street shelter played out alongside a City Council debate Wednesday on whether to fund the shelter's use as a year-round facility for the next 12 months.
Neighbors write, "As neighbors who live a block from the Johnson Street shelter, we were dismayed and unsurprised to read about the city’s rhetoric and the continued lack of neighborhood engagement around the shelter’s opening."