Viewpoint: Crisis Intervention Levy will help our neighbors in need

Viewpoint: Crisis Intervention Levy will help our neighbors in need

The city and county of Missoula invested in the Emergency Winter Shelter using funding from the American Rescue Plan. That funding has dried up, and advocates are asking voters to fill the funding gap.

As faith leaders and lay leaders of Missoula, we join our voices in support of the Crisis Intervention Levy, so our local community can continue valuable, effective programs to help our neighbors in crisis.

In our daily work, we see dire need: neighbors who lose jobs and homes, neighbors with mental health challenges, and neighbors who are survivors of domestic abuse. Our religious and moral traditions teach that we are duty-bound to offer both compassion and concrete help.

In the last two years, Missoula County and the City of Missoula took a proven, effective approach with one-time federal pandemic aid to create special crisis intervention programs:

  1.  The Mobile Crisis Team responds to mental health emergencies and supports our police and emergency services by keeping people out of jail and the ER.
  1. Supervised, structured shelter programs keep unhoused people off the streets in safe, supportive environments where they can get their lives back together and can find permanent housing and gainful employment.
  1. Crime victim advocate services help those who have experienced domestic abuse and need assistance navigating the legal system and regaining emotional stability.

These programs have been a lifeline for our community. No one died on our streets from exposure in the last two winters. People got jobs and apartments. Hope is growing and healing is taking place. Our Missoula community is safer and healthier. Let's not stop now.

The Prophet Isaiah said, “If you shall pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday”. And Proverbs teach, “Tzedakah (charity) exalts a nation”.

Let’s embrace this chance to help those in crisis live a better life. Let’s hold one another up and take care of one another.

Please vote for the Crisis Intervention Levy on the November ballot and support those in our community who depend on it.

Signed by members of Missoula's faith community: Rabbi Laurie Franklin;Rev. John Lund; Kathy Usher; Dharmacharya Greg Grallo; Rev. Jean Larson; Pastor Chris Flohr; Rev. Daniel Disch; Rev. John Daniels; Mary Nordhagen; Kristin A. Freeman; Steve McArthur; Rev. Courtney D. Arntzen, Community Chaplain; Rev. Dan Cravy; Jim Hicks, Executive Director Hope Rescue Mission; The Ven. Dorcie Kafka Dvarishkis.

Filed Under: Montana Today
Categories: Voices
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