BOZEMAN, Mont. — It’s a visible, growing crisis — homelessness in Bozeman. The Regional Housing Coalition believes it’s due to the city being a hub of service providers for unhoused individuals.
HRDC’s emergency shelter is a large provider, serving people across southwest Montana. Last year, 90 individuals from Belgrade, 21 from Three Forks, 24 from Big Sky and 54 from Livingston received shelter through HRDC.
As demand for additional shelter and transitional housing continues to grow, the Unhoused to Housed Initiative is working to address the issue. Over the last year, the group created the Gallatin County Regional Houselessness Strategy.
One Valley Community Foundation serves as the facilitator of the strategy development process.
Officials say the purpose is to bring the right voices to the table to get behind an approach to address homelessness.
“We’re wanting to ensure that everyone is at the table from beginning to end, so that once the strategy was created, everybody had an input on how this was created so that we can all work together to make actionable solutions that are laid out in the strategy,” said Mark Bond, One Valley Community Foundation community engagement manager.
The key components of the strategy are expanding access to transitional housing, implementing safe parking programs to offer temporary relief, gathering input from unhoused individuals and applying national models to guide regional efforts.
HRDC is one of several stakeholders that contributed to creating the strategy.
Officials say it’s helpful for community leaders to know there’s one priority moving forward to achieve different goals.
“We’re all dialed in, we know what the priorities are, we’re all pushing in this direction, and knowing that as funding and other resources come available, that’s where it should be directed towards,” said HRDC CEO and president Heather Grenier.
Right now, each component is being ironed out to ensure how the strategies can be used effectively to address homelessness.
“Finding concrete ways to break it down and really make sure that we’re actioning out all of this work so the strategy turns into an action plan,” said Bond.