BOZEMAN — The number of homeless people in the Bozeman area is up 20% this year, according to the HRDC. To keep up with the demand, the current warming center has closed, making way for a new, larger shelter called Homeward Point. The new facility opened on Monday.
“It’s a bittersweet thing, to kind of celebrate the opening of a homeless shelter,”
Brian Guyer's job is to manage the operations of the shelter. Guyer has been with the HRDC for 10 years and helped at the Warming Center on Wheat Drive, which he says was a repurposed rollerskating rink that was “literally bursting at the seams.”
That’s why Guyer says the new shelter is so crucial. He says it’s “a facility that is really meant to meet the needs of our unhoused community that we haven’t been able to do before.”
Those needs include medical care, mental health, financial literacy, and job training, according to Guyer. He says all of those services will now be provided on-site to eliminate the barrier of transportation.
The new facility is located next to the food bank, which Guyer says is beneficial for the community.
Guyer gave MTN a tour of Homeward Point, which he says was designed purposefully – down to the wide staircases with large windows, keeping it light and bright.
Pictured: Kitchen facilities inside the new shelter (credit: MTN News)
“We can, with the design of the building, even eliminate the things they are going to trigger someone who has experienced a lot of trauma,” said Guyer.
Other features of the new facility include suites specifically for families, with a kitchen and a play area. There are also separate rooms to accommodate people with different sleep schedules, lockers for storage, and bathrooms complete with personal care items such as shampoo, conditioner, and menstrual products.
WATCH: Tour of the new shelter facility
“Rather than, you know, putting beds in absolutely every nook and cranny of this facility, it was let’s figure out ways to make people stay at the shelter shorter,” said Guyer.
He says the facility would not have been possible without the Bozeman community, which raised more than $16 million to build the shelter.
“This is something the entire community should be proud of,” said Guyer.
Guyer says the shelter housed over 100 people on Tuesday, which was its second night of operations.
