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12/19/2024
“Missoula This Week” is reported and written By Katie Fairbanks. Send your Missoula news and tips to kfairbanks@montanafreepress.org.
YMCA seeking donations to close final fundraising gap
More than two years after the Missoula Family YMCA began fundraising to expand and renovate its Russell Street campus, the nonprofit is $1.5 million short of its $20.3 million goal.
The Y is in its final fundraising push of the multi-year “Here for Good” capital campaign to revitalize the nonprofit, allowing it to expand programs and services to meet the needs of the growing community, said CEO Heather Foster. The project includes renovations to the main building, a new childcare center that doubles program capacity, an “airnasium” — a covered court space — an adjacent splash pad and an all-abilities playground that will be open to everyone in the community.
“It’s a big project,” Foster said. “We’re so incredibly grateful and amazed at the generosity of Missoula.”
Construction began in early June 2023 and will continue through next summer. The new Phyllis Washington Early Child Care Center — named to honor the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation’s long-standing support of the YMCA — opened in July.
The center, a cornerstone of the capital campaign, doubled the Y’s capacity to 94 children and consolidated childcare into one building, Foster said. The center includes five classrooms for children 6 weeks to 5 years old, a kitchen for the childcare and school-age programs, a staff break room, a room for providers to meet with families and a new playground.
Foster said that although starting construction before completing fundraising was risky, the Y pushed to open the new childcare center as early as possible.
“We knew childcare is critical, … and that we could play a role in expanding,” she said. “It’s not profitable or sustainable so we needed to create other ways to support it, and for us it’s memberships. If we wanted this to be a place where people choose to be, we needed to upgrade.”
When it opened in 1967, Missoula’s YMCA was located in a small modular building recently torn down to make room for the new childcare center, Foster said. The current building was constructed in the 1980s and hasn’t seen a major renovation since, so everything is getting a refresh or larger update, she said.
The pool, a vital part of the Y, got a new filtration system, pumps, HVAC and tile, Foster said. Upgraded locker rooms will provide more privacy and dedicated spaces for families and adults with caregivers.
A second-floor space that was primarily for administration will include some offices as well as a new group exercise studio. A new entryway will make room for a two-story play structure “like a McDonalds but healthier,” Foster said.
The youth innovation space, currently the drop-in daycare center, will include a computer lab, room to work on projects and a kitchen.
“We wanted to create a space where kids want to be and maybe encourage parents to come exercise,” Foster said. “We thought about a multigenerational space. Is there something for everybody and places where the whole family unit could get together?”
Foster said the Y is a “melting pot of Missoula,” where members’ age, physical ability or income doesn’t matter, creating common ground and connections. The nonprofit wanted to carry that forward with the renovation project, she said.
The Missoula YMCA has never taken on debt, and the “Here for Good” fundraiser allows the organization to maintain that stability, Foster said. The board and staff are working to increase wages for the Y’s 350 employees.
“If we don’t have to figure out how to afford a debt, we can focus on paying staff more,” Foster said. “And we’re so darn close.”
The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation will match up to $500,000 in donations to the campaign made by Jan. 15.
Those interested in learning more about the Y and the renovation project can visit the website and sign up for a tour.
“We want the community to come see and have an opportunity to understand our offerings and services,” Foster said. “Donors can come see what their dollars have done. I hope they feel pride in this space and in the campus renovation because it’s here to serve thousands of Missoulians.”
3 Questions For
Jim McGrath, HUD programs director for the Missoula Housing Authority, is set to retire Jan. 3 after 19 years with the agency. Before joining the housing authority in 2005, McGrath was involved in affordable housing policy and practice, including during his time on the Missoula City Council from 1996 to 2004. On Wednesday, McGrath spoke with MTFP about how the housing authority and the challenges it faces have changed over the years. His comments have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
MTFP: How has the demand for housing authority programs changed over the years and how has the housing authority addressed it?
McGrath: The need has been consistent and probably growing. We serve very low-income people, extremely low-income people, especially in the rental assistance programs because even with the affordable housing that we have it’s been [income] restricted. But we used to assume that once you got up to, say, 80% of the area median income, 100% of area median income, we didn’t need to worry about you. Now we’re getting calls from people, like, ‘We want to have programs that serve 120% of area median income.’ The housing crisis has spread enormously in the last four years, so the need has really exploded in the last few years. We have been fortunate to receive some incremental increases in our vouchers. But from when I started in 2005 until at least maybe 2015 or more, we had the same number of vouchers. … We now have over 1,200 vouchers rather than 750. Then again, adding 20 vouchers is a drop in the bucket, not even a drop in the bucket. But we do what we can with it.
The other big change, which was starting when I started, was dealing with special populations, particularly the homeless population, but also veterans, youth and disabled people. So we’ve been able to get these specialized vouchers that are targeted to those folks. What that does on the other side of it is that it frees up our pool of general vouchers that can be for working families or seniors or whoever needs them.
[The housing authority] has grown a lot and diversified a lot. When I started, we had a voucher program. We had a homeless program. We had a small number of public housing [units], and we had this property here, which is a small affordable housing tax credit project. Now we have more than 1,100 units that we own and manage and various kinds of rental assistance. We are always looking at what we can do across the board on housing needs. Development is hugely expensive now, not that it wasn’t before, it’s always challenging. And so we’re a vastly different housing authority than we were 20 years ago in much better ways.
MTFP: What challenges is the housing authority facing?
McGrath: In talking with the former director of Montana Continuum of Care, he’d be like, ‘I’ve worked here for 25 years and all the things that we’ve done over time to address homelessness, it gets bigger, the problem gets bigger.’ It’s not because we’re failing at what we’re doing, it’s because of these upstream issues. But we didn’t have people camping on the streets a few years back. That’s not an indication that our programming we provide or the housing we provide is inappropriate or not working. It’s just that there’s not enough of it, and it costs more. Particularly in those populations, the gap in social services and mental health services and things like that is really a limitation. But we’re also seeing the population that needs help with housing is expanding upward in income and outward, and so there’s just more of that need there. It seems like every new project you do, you have to make it more and more complicated and through more and more partners and you have to leverage more and more stuff just to get it done. It never was really easy. But now it just gets more challenging in that sense.
What we’ve typically done is we’re somewhat opportunistic. And so if we have the opportunity to serve additional homeless vets, we’ll do that. If we have the opportunity to serve seniors in need, we’ll do that. The need is so widespread that pretty much anything that we can step in to do will be constructive.
MTFP: What do you want the community to know about the Missoula Housing Authority?
McGrath: We are the community’s housing authority; we’re here to help with that. But it’s important to understand that we are bound by the rules of the programs that we can do, so we can’t necessarily serve everybody or serve certain populations because we’re just constrained on that. And where is the state government on housing programs? Whereas, the local government has been pretty good, but they don’t have very much in terms of resources. But you know, expanding those kinds of things also gives us more flexibility and ability to serve more people and different kinds of people.
On the one hand, we are really a good, benevolent landlord and we help a lot of people. But then to be honest with you, I spent most of my time telling people no. Are you at the top of the waiting list? No, not today. You have to wait some more. We don’t have housing for you right now. We’ll put you on our list. We’re there to do what we can, and we’re trying to do it more and be more flexible. But also, it’s not gonna only be the housing authority; it’s going to be other partners as well because the problem is too big.
Housing is that bedrock for your life. If you have safe, stable, affordable housing, you’re much more likely to be able to thrive in any other aspect of your life, whether it’s education or income, work, anything. We’ve been able to do that for thousands of people in this community. So that’s tremendous. Like I said, I spend most of my time telling people no, but to be honest, I also spend most of my time with people that we’re housing. I don’t have to interact with them that much because they’re just being served and doing what they need to do in their life. That’s really what we’re trying to do.
5 Things You Should Know in Missoula
The city’s plans to redevelop the property that includes the Johnson Street emergency homeless shelter moved forward Thursday, when the Missoula Redevelopment Agency approved a contract for a public engagement process and master plan for the site. The city purchased the 12-acre property from Montana Rail Link in 2017 and developed the southern portion into MRL Park. The city recently wrapped up environmental remediation, and staff expects the site to be deemed safe for residential and commercial development in February, said Michael Hicks, the MRA’s redevelopment project manager. The board approved a $327,575 contract with design firm GGLO to conduct community outreach and plan preferred redevelopment options for the property’s northern eight acres. The plan is not intended to determine the future of the emergency shelter but focuses on the future development of the entire property, Hicks said.
The Missoula Redevelopment Agency board on Thursday approved spending $1.6 million to add lighting along 2.6 miles of the Bitterroot Trail in the Franklin to the Fort neighborhood. The city will pay $1.49 million to DJ’s Electric to install 182 light poles, as well as $132,000 in permit fees, Northwestern Energy Service connection costs and a contingency fund. Tax increment finance dollars from two urban renewal districts in the area will fund the project. The lighting will help improve safety along the trail commonly used by commuters, said Annette Marchesseault, MRA project manager.
On Saturday, the longest night of the year, the city of Missoula, the Poverello Center and United Way of Missoula County will hold a memorial service for the 23 unhoused neighbors who died in 2024. The service begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Missoula County Courthouse and will include speakers from the city and Missoula County, the Poverello Center and a reading of names by the shelter’s Homeless Outreach Team. The annual memorial provides an opportunity for the community to reflect on lives lost and demonstrate solidarity with unhoused people, according to the Poverello Center’s press release.
The North Missoula Development Corporation on Tuesday announced the addition of 1520 Howell St. to Missoula’s Community Land Trust. The NMCDC retains ownership of the land, while homeowners purchase the structures and lease the land, keeping housing costs low and ensuring the property remains affordable to future generations. The previous owners of the home, three friends, purchased the property in 2021 with the goal of maintaining its affordability. NMCDC acquired the property last month with Community Development Block Grant funding and financial contributions from the owners. The property’s current renters will eventually have the opportunity to purchase the home at an affordable price.
Missoula’s Public Works and Mobility Department is holding a contest to name three city snowplows. The city will accept suggestions until midnight Jan. 13. Staff will choose the top 15 names to be voted on from Jan. 21 through Feb. 4. The top three names will be announced at the City Council meeting on Feb. 10. Each winning name will be put on a snowplow and the winning contestants can get a photo with the plow they named. Guidelines for the contest and a link to submit an entry are located online.
In Case You Missed It
On Monday, the Missoula City Council unanimously adopted the Our Missoula 2045 Land Use Plan with several amendments proposed by staff and council members. The plan will guide the next 20 years of Missoula’s growth and development and lays the groundwork for increased housing density citywide. Read the full story here.
Programming note
Missoula This Week will not publish on Friday, Dec. 27, as the MTFP staff takes a breather through the Christmas holiday. We will return to our regular publication schedule on Jan. 3.