From Survival Mode to Stability: Helping People Move Forward at the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space

In late 2020, Missoula’s Temporary Safe Outdoor Space (TSOS) began offering people experiencing homelessness a safe space during the pandemic. While United Way of Missoula County, Hope Rescue Mission and Missoula County government set up the space in response to COVID-19, it quickly became a model of how a service-rich environment with a collaborative community built on relationships can help reduce homelessness.

The success of the TSOS exemplifies the importance and need for a safe and secure space for people trying to obtain housing. The TSOS, currently located on private land south of Missoula, will soon relocate to a new site off Broadway and Mullan and be furnished with hard-sided shelters that will help make the site more sustainable in the long run. 

This week, Commissioners Slotnick and Vero spoke with Jim Hicks, executive director of Hope Rescue Mission, who talks about the importance of building relationships to help people find stability in their lives and the future of the TSOS.  

Learn more:

• Updates on Operation Shelter
• Initial FAQS about the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space 
• Crisis Services Levy 

Thank you to Missoula's Community Media Resource for podcast recording support!

Transcript

Josh Slotnick: 0:10

[intro music plays] Welcome back to Tip of commissioners. I'm Josh Slotnick, and I'm here with my fellow commissioner, Juanita Vero. Unfortunately, Dave Meyer is not with us this week. I think he's part of a state program ensuring that big game and central Montana are not lonely... Today we are joined by Jim Hicks, the executive director of Hope Rescue Mission. Thanks a lot, Jim, for coming to talk with us straight away. Can you give us some background on the TSOS, the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space? That is what you are publicly known for these days. What is it and what are the goals of the TSOS?

Jim Hicks: 0:42

It was started as a measure to help people could move forward. We wanted to get them into a place where we could have wraparound services. They wouldn't have to worry about getting to their case manager. Their case manager could come to them. We could have mental health professionals come, we could have physicians come. What surprised us most importantly was they just needed a place where they could leave and come back and not have their stuff rifled through. And then for somebody just to look at them and call them by name and say, we're for you, just mentally help them to say not everybody's against you.

Josh Slotnick: 1:20

So we're talking about temporary housing in unhoused, people who were homeless, essentially.

Jim Hicks: 1:29

Yeah, correct. It was stood up with CARES Act and United Way. And that really helped us to get to where we are today. I remember a guy the first winter. I mean, we started in January, right? The guy climbs out of his tent. It's about 20 degrees snow on the ground. He stretches and says "That's the best night's sleep I've had in years." So just that little bit of stability, helping them move forward.

Juanita Vero: 1:59

Say more about that, about how housing or someone to get back on their feet.

Jim Hicks: 2:05

We look at housing as being our home, right? They look at housing being somewhere where they can be stable. And some of the urban camping, it was anything but stable. So even with these tents, even with someone being there to greet them in the morning to help them, "How do you need help? What can we do?" That was a path of stability they've not experienced and it helped some of them just to calm down.

Juanita Vero: 2:32

To start be able to sleep at night, to know know that if you leave, your belongings will be safe.

Jim Hicks: 2:40

Exactly.

Josh Slotnick: 2:41

I remember one of the public hearings we did levy. It was a gentleman who talked about not being in survival mode, but when he was living out in the world, he was spending all of his time in survival mode and it deprived him of any energy to do anything else. What do you think when you hear that?

Jim Hicks: 2:59

I think of our great camping trips around everything to survive. I think how different that would be if all I had is a blanket and a sleeping bag and I had to walk around to find some place to sleep, and then I had to find something to eat, had to survive. Right? This was helping them, giving them some tools to survive, just to get to a level of it's it's not even our normal, but getting to a level of their normal, realizing somebody's going to walk with them through this, that we're not against them, we're going to help them towards housing.

Juanita Vero: 3:38

So how are you specifically involved with the

Jim Hicks: 3:42

As executive director of Hope Rescue have. And so just oversee the crew out there, answer questions, all kinds of stuff that comes up. And my deal is relationships, right? So building relationships with people. And one guy was interviewed and they he said, we assume that food and something over your head is the most important thing each day. And he goes, Yeah, but more than that is if somebody will just be my friend. So when we say wraparound services, so glad for all the team members here in Missoula, but also we have a crew out there that will just sit with them and hear them, talk to them, calm them down at times. Yeah, just to walk with them.

Juanita Vero: 4:32

Walking with them. What's an example of a step forward? Everyone's different, but can you just help illustrate what you mean by steps forward?

Jim Hicks: 4:42

Boy, I know that there's so many that's more this is the one that pops in my head. We helped someone get a job, right? And so he was working on his stability so he could save up to go through the voucher process and all of that. And then we noticed that he wasn't going to his job. So you're watching What's up? Why aren't you going? And he said, "I just can't handle going to work smelling." And it. Unless there's no showers. He goes, "I don't want people to know that I'm..." His words, "homeless."

Juanita Vero: 5:15

Mm hmm.

Jim Hicks: 5:16

And so that's when we partnered with the I mean, it was just a little thing, but it was big, right? It derailed him because he didn't want anybody to know that he was unhoused. So to just help us, you know, look at basic needs. We have to get these covered.

Juanita Vero: 5:32

It's really powerful.

Josh Slotnick: 5:33

Thanks, Jim. The TSOS is tucked over kind of You kind of can't see it. For people who've never visited or actually had a chance to see it. Can you describe what it looks like, what it feels like to be there?

Jim Hicks: 5:45

Yeah, what it feels like it actually feels a fire camp in some ways because it was set up during COVID, it met all the COVID compliant requirements. The platforms are anywhere from 12 to 16 feet apart. There's all those kinds of regulations that we have. We teach them. They have to be good neighbors. So we have wooden lockers provided for them that they can keep their stuff in. But no more than that, if it spills over, we tell them they have a little bit to get rid of it or we will get rid of it. So just because they have kind of a hoarder mentality, I don't have anything, so I'm going to take everything I can. So help them to pare down and keep and know that they can keep. Nobody's going to steal it in their tent or in that. Well, I just call them foot lockers, but it's a bin. So and that they have to clean up. They have to take stuff to the trash. They, you know, just some some of those basic life skills that we take for granted that they haven't been held accountable to for several reasons. They're just protecting themselves to get them to move forward when they are in housing, that they know a little bit more of what that's going to look like. I'll never forget a gal coming back to the office who we got housed saying, "Being in a house is the worst and the best thing that's ever happened." And we're going, "What?" She goes, "It's the best thing because I'm in the house. It's the worst thing because I don't know what to do now. I've been separated from my community. I need friends. I didn't realize that mail came every day and I have to do something with that." You know that she didn't realize there's some mail he can just throw away. There's other mail you have to answer. Again, small things we take for granted that are big steps for them as as folks move forward.

Juanita Vero: 7:31

So now, like Josh was saying, the current south of town is moving in the next few months. Can you talk a little bit about the new location and what sort of improvements it will have?

Jim Hicks: 7:42

Yeah, new location is off Broadway a bit and you to Missoula County is the shelters. These are hard sided shelters, 100 square foot shelters with locking doors. In the continuum of care it's just the next step, helping folks to learn how to take care of a house. You can lock your door. This is your space. You have to take care of it. It's going to be a fantastic step in helping people move forward. We're looking forward to it.

Juanita Vero: 8:13

And there'll be water there? What are the facilities like?

Jim Hicks: 8:17

Water. Sewer. They will actually have heat

Josh Slotnick: 8:21

And a shower trailer, onsite.

Jim Hicks: 8:23

Shower trailer on site offices, different It'll be a real big step up in helping folks move from where they're at into permanent housing.

Josh Slotnick: 8:33

Can you give us a kind of a success story of

Jim Hicks: 8:37

I think you guys have met Sean, but when he businessman call me because of Sean going,"This is the reason we didn't want you out here. Look what he's doing and this and that." And he was a bit of a mess. But as we walked with him, you could begin to see changes. One change I saw is I was out there and he goes, "Hey, I'm going to Wal-Mart. Do you need anything at Wal-Mart?" He looks at me."No, no, Sean, I'm good. Thanks." To see where he is now... He was addicted when he came. Now he's clean. He and his wife have a child. They have an apartment. He's got a job. You just see a new level of confidence in him, a new level of responsibility that he had no idea that he could do being clean. So there's that side. Josh, The other side of a success story is a businessman who gave me a call one day and said, "When you opened up, I opposed you." And he said, "But the other day I went out on the dock to kick another..." His word,"homeless person off the dock. I went out in the morning to wake him up and get him off the dock, and he said it was an employee. It was an employee that hit some rough times. And now he was out of his house and had no place to sleep. So he came to the dock." He asked if we would help him. He says, "I want to do this anonymously. Can can you help me help him? And we did, because this is what he said. This is a great kid. This is a valuable employee and I want to help him." And then the next thing he talked about is this brings the whole homeless issue to my front door. And he goes, "I'm not against what you're doing now." You know, both on the on the the resident side of those that come and stay at TSOs and those that we're working with in the community as they can see transformational development, That's what this is about. It's not leaving folks where they are, but building that relationship to carry them forward.

Juanita Vero: 10:35

That's so important and so powerful. I'm glad you shared both those. Have we missed anything? Anything that you want listeners to know?

Jim Hicks: 10:44

Yeah. You know, the greatest determiner of opinion of them. Right? And one thing that this has helped me do the past couple of years is instead of saying "What's wrong with you?" Is to say"What happened to you?" And it just changes everything. So if it's a person on the street, I just always try to get their eyes just to know I'm not looking through them, past them, or not wanting to see them. But can I catch your eyes and somehow can we sit down and say "What happened? Tell me your story." Because that for us, that again, about building those relationships and seeing that transformation, that's, that's what it's about.

Josh Slotnick: 11:30

Well, we're so fortunate to have you be part

Jim Hicks: 11:34

I'm fortunate, Josh, to be a part of it.

Josh Slotnick: 11:36

So I do want to let everybody know that the that we funded with one time money from the federal government, and it's part of the crisis services levy, which is on the ballot this November. If you want any more information about that levy and the programs that could fund, visit MissoulaCountyVoice.com You can get all kinds of details.

Juanita Vero: 11:58

And before we close, can you share with us, wisdom you've come across recently?

Jim Hicks: 12:04

Well, one, either. The book I would recommend is the one you recommended to me that I've really enjoyed and I keep going back to is The Body Keeps the Score and that's just been so helpful. I love to read, so that's just been so helpful in the kind of the big picture of helping people get from where they are walking beside them to some of that. What happened to you type comes through that.

Juanita Vero: 12:28

Yeah, that book had a big impact on me and so

Jim Hicks: 12:33

Yeah, it's very good.

Josh Slotnick: 12:34

Thanks a ton for stopping by today.

Jim Hicks: 12:35

Oh, you bet. Glad to. Thank both of you.

Juanita Vero: 12:38

Thanks, everyone.

Josh Slotnick: 12:40

[outro music plays] Thanks for listening to If you enjoy these conversations, it would mean a lot if you would rate and review the show on whichever podcast app you like. And if you know a friend who would like to keep up with what's happening in local government, be sure to recommend this podcast to them. The Tip of the Spear podcast is made possible with support from Matt, better known as Missoula Community Access Television and our staff in the Missoula County Communications Division. If you have a question or topic you'd like us to address on a future episode, email it to communications at Missoula County US and to find other ways to stay up to date with what's happening at Missoula County. Go to Missoula DOT CEO slash County updates. And thanks for listening.