The Public is Invited to a ZOOM Reaching Home Update on May 11

The 10 year plan to end homelessness is now in its ninth year, and the city and county are hosting a ZOOM Reaching Home update on Tuesday, May 11.

Reaching Home Manager Emily Armstrong will be discussing the many milestones the project has achieved as the ten year anniversary approaches.

“We're just trying to provide an annual update,” said Armstrong. “I really am trying to work a lot on communicating with the community and share about all the different efforts that we're working on and the different initiatives that play in the homelessness and housing sphere. So this is just an opportunity to provide updates on all of that and share some of the things we're working on. We are nearing the end of our 10 year plan to end homelessness, so it’s just an opportunity for the community to begin that reflection process as we look towards what's next.”

Armstrong highlighted one of the 10 Year Plan’s success stories.

“I would say one of the biggest accomplishments has been developing our Missoula Coordinated Entry System, which was created in 2017,” she said. “It’s a centralized system that streamlines access to housing resources and minimizes barriers for folks experiencing homelessness and getting access to those resources. There are now 38 agencies in Missoula signed on as partner agencies or access points to the system, and so it's just a really robust way for us to better utilize the resources we have in town.”

Armstrong expanded on that system.

“We've trained 90 different individuals in use of that with seminar training every month, and the Missoula Housing Authority opened a new permanent supportive housing site of apartments that is almost entirely full,” she said. “There’s a lot of really positive progress in the past nine years that we're excited to build sustainably off of moving forward.”

Armstrong provided specific details of the Reaching Home Update next week.

“It's open to the public, and anyone is welcome to participate,” she said. “It'll also be on MCAT I believe on channel 190 live, and then available to watch afterwards, so anyone can sign in and participate” she said. “We'd love to have everyone there on Tuesday May 11 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mountain Time.”

Click the ZOOM link on the attached document to access the update on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.