Bozeman, Montana, has seen a dramatic increase in its unhoused population, coinciding with rising housing costs. Last winter's extreme cold tested the city's only year-round homeless shelter, the Warming Center, which operated continuously to provide refuge. Staff and volunteers mobilized to assist those sleeping outdoors, offering blankets and food. The shelter has become a focal point for various crises, highlighting the interconnected issues of mental health, housing inadequacies, and substance abuse, underlining the urgent need for systemic solutions as temperatures drop.
"All of these things sort of come to a head at the shelter. We see the culmination of a mental health crisis, housing crisis, a wage crisis, a drug crisis."
"When the shelter was just two occupants shy of the fire marshal's occupancy limit - 120 people - the staff feared they'd have to turn people away."
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