What is Missoula County Doing About...?

Marshall Mountain: Missoula County, in collaboration with the City of Missoula and community partners, owns Marshall Mountain Park, securing public access and allowing recreators to continue to use the 480-acre site into the future Learn more.

Clinton Community Park: In 2024, a new skatepark opened at the Clinton Community Park, part of a larger project to make the park a more useful community gathering space again. Additional aspects of this project include exploring new uses for the community center and developing additional amenities, such as a parking lot, picnic pavilion, garbage service and fencing. Learn more.

Open Lands Program: Missoula County has an Open Lands program that works with communities, private landowners, local organizations and agencies to conserve the County’s diverse mix of forests, grasslands, agricultural lands and water resources. Learn more.

Parks and Trails Matching Grants: Each year, Missoula County Parks, Trails and Open Lands provides matching grant funds to communities interested in creating and enhancing public recreation sites and facilities located in Missoula County, but outside Missoula city limits. These grants are generally open in late summer and close in the fall. Learn more.

Gerald W. Marks Exploration Center and Rocky Mountain Gardens: In December 2023, Missoula County opened the new Gerald W. Marks Exploration Center and Rocky Mountain Gardens, located at 1075 South Ave. W. This building hosts the Department of Ecology and Extension, Missoula Conservation District and the Missoula Butterfly House and Insectarium. Funded through public-private partnerships, this facility is the first new structure on the campus as part of the Fairgrounds revitalization plan. The space is now a premier destination for scientific and community-centered education and a place to find connection with nature and our rural heritage in the Rocky Mountain West. Learn more.

LATEST: Missoula County, Homeword receive grant funding to address homelessness and incarceration

Missoula County and local housing organization Homeword have been selected to participate in the Just Home Project, a national program to advance community-driven efforts to break the link between homelessness and incarceration led by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute.

Missoula County will receive $246,254 to design local intervention strategies to disrupt the cycle of homelessness and continued engagement with the criminal justice system. The planning process will include community and stakeholder engagement to explore the feasibility of building housing for this population and consider other policy changes that could remove their barriers to housing.

At the end of the planning process, Missoula County is eligible for additional funding from the MacArthur Foundation to implement the plan and acquire or develop housing for populations not currently served by existing housing resources. Click here to read more.

Housing Action Plan - Breaking Ground: Missoula County has faced housing affordability challenges for over a decade, but in recent years a housing shortage and growing population have exacerbated the problem. Home prices and rents have increased dramatically more than incomes, and rental vacancy rates have decreased to record lows. Underlying high housing costs is an undersupply of around 2,400 housing units in Missoula County. To help this, in February 2022, the commissioners adopted the Missoula County Housing Action Plan: Breaking Ground. Staff are now working to implement the recommended actions in the plan, which fall under three broad goals:

Two broad goals inform Missoula County’s work on housing:

1. Working to keep people in their homes, and
2. Supporting the development of new affordable housing units.

To keep people in their homes (including both renters and homeowners), Missoula County is:

• Annually funding housing organizations to provide housing support and prevent homelessness by providing supportive housing, winter rental assistance and helping youth in crisis. This will total more than $750,000 this fiscal year.
• Setting aside $750,000 for the Housing Innovation Fund to help support projects and programs that address housing affordability in the county.
• Funding programs that support essential but costly home repairs and provide energy efficient upgrades for low-income homeowners.
• Working to rehabilitate up to six low-income homes through a housing rehab program totaling more than $300,000.
• Preserving existing affordable housing in the county through strategic partnerships, such as the preservation of manufactured home parks for resident ownership.

To support the development of new affordable housing units, Missoula County is:

• Working to develop an infrastructure plan for the fast-growing Wye area to expedite the sewer, water, roads and other infrastructure needed to facilitate denser housing development, which helps increase housing stock and bring down prices.
• Working to leverage funding from the state and other sources to invest in road, sewer, water and other infrastructure updates to help increase housing options in rural communities, such as Lolo, Bonner, Milltown and Seeley Lake.
• Increasing options for down payment assistance by collaborating with local partners and creating new homeownership opportunities in the market.
• Setting aside $750,000 for the Housing Innovation Fund to help support new projects and programs that address housing affordability in the county.
• Working to improve data collection to improve understanding of housing countywide and how it relates to the different housing needs throughout the county.

Operation Shelter: Missoula County and the City of Missoula are working with community partners to help people experiencing homelessness in our community and to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place. Homelessness is complex, and achieving meaningful outcomes requires a creative, multi-faceted approach. County and City government have allocated staff time and funding to address this issue. Missoula County and the City of Missoula stood up an incident management team with operations and logistics expertise to identify and vet potential alternative locations for community members currently camping in the urban wild. The team identified several locations for sites that would be able to accommodate the necessary sanitation, security and staffing.

• Temporary Safe Outdoor Space: The most successful example of a project that’s helping transition those who are unhoused into housing is the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space, which is a safe, healthy, secure, staffed (24/7) environment currently located on private land that serves, with dignity, up to 40 people experiencing homelessness who are not accessing existing services or resources. A goal of the TSOS is to offer people experiencing homelessness a safe space and link them to appropriate, sustainable housing. The TSOS was relocated in January 2023 to County-owned land near the detention facility on Mullan and Broadway, and now has small, hard-sided pallet shelters where people can stay as they get their feet back under them.
• Authorized Camping Site: The County and City also used funds from the American Rescue Plan Act to stand up the Authorized Camping Site, which opened in early 2022 and was located on Clark Fork Lane. The ACS closed in fall 2022 due to staffing and security issues onsite. While it ultimately closed due to staffing and security issues, the ACS served as a learning experience for staff as the City and County seek solutions for an issue local government has not traditionally navigated.

Land donated for affordable housing: Missoula County donated a 5.2-acre parcel near the Missoula County Detention Facility to the City of Missoula for the Trinity Project, which was a collaboration between Homeword, the Missoula Housing Authority and BlueLine Development that was developed into a 202-home affordable housing project. This facility includes a navigation center, with staff from PHC and All Nations Health Center offering support services for those who need them onsite.

Continuum of Care funding: Missoula County works with YWCA Missoula to secure annual Continuum of Care funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide rental assistance and supportive services to families experiencing homelessness. The YWCA is able to support up to 50 families each year with rental assistance. Missoula County is a member of the statewide Continuum of Care, which strives to support individuals and families experiencing homelessness across that state.

Housing rehabilitation: Missoula County partnered with the District XI Human Resource Council to secure HUD CDBG funding from the State of Montana to support costs for housing rehabilitation for income-eligible families in Missoula County (outside city limits). The program invests federal dollars in residential properties to preserve and improve existing housing, increase residential value and stimulate investment in Missoula County. Homeowners receive financial and technical assistance necessary to correct safety issues and substandard conditions of their homes.

Rural Special Improvement District loan program: Missoula County offers a Water and Wastewater deferred low-interest loan program to income-eligible residents of RSIDs 8901 (Lolo), 8916 (El Mar), 8918 (Lewis and Clark) and 8925 (Sunset West) to support the costs of needed repairs to water or wastewater systems.

Report a pothole or other maintenance: The Missoula County Road Department is responsible for maintaining approximately 452 miles of roads. Of these 452 miles, approximately 252 miles are paved, and 200 miles are gravel. The division also has maintenance responsibility for approximately 700 sumps and 465 bridges and other structures, ranging in size from the 1,024-foot Scott Street Bridge to 12-inch culverts. The Roads Division employs 22 road maintenance workers (five in Seeley Lake and 17 in Missoula), five mechanics (one in Seeley Lake and four in Missoula), one welder, seven administrative staff and three engineers. See the 2022 Annual Report from Public Works.

Community Justice Department: The Community Justice Department promotes the safety of Missoula County citizens, the protection and healing of crime victims, the fair and just treatment of defendants and offenders, the ongoing improvement and coordination of the justice system’s response to crime, and the prevention of crime and the reduction of recidivism. The department collaborates with Missoula City and County courts, City and County Attorney’s offices, law enforcement agencies, and other criminal justice partners and stakeholders to re-imagine justice, enhance public safety, increase innovative and evidence-based services, fair treatment, and dignity for all people involved in the justice system.

CJD consists of the Crime Victim Advocate Division, Justice Initiatives Division, the Rural Program and provides coordination of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC).

• The Crime Victim Advocate Division provides free and confidential assistance to victims of relationship violence, sexual assault and stalking by offering advocacy and resource information in civil and criminal matters.
• Justice Initiatives uses a data-driven approaches to strengthen the local criminal justice system to meet community needs by increasing resources through grant funding to support cross-departmental training, collaborative problem-solving, policy development, relationship-building, program and service development, and information sharing. Current initiatives include improving the responses to relationship violence, sexual violence and child abuse; safely reducing the jail population though targeted services to defendants; addressing ethnic and racial disparities in the justice system; effectively responding to mental health issues to divert people from higher levels of intervention; and reducing vicarious trauma in justice system workers.
• The Rural Program increases support to victims of relationship and sexual violence in rural and isolated areas through increasing victim advocacy services, providing civil legal services and direct emergency financial assistance; it improves victim response by providing training and strengthening collaboration between professionals who serve rural victims; and it prevents future victimization by providing teen dating violence prevention programming to rural youth and a trauma-informed parenting support group for survivors.
• The Missoula County commissioners established the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council as a formal committee, made up of key criminal justice system stakeholders and policymakers, to identify, analyze and solve multi-agency systemic issues within the justice system.

2024 MacArthur Grant: Missoula County and Homeword have been selected to participate in the Just Home Project, a national initiative by the MacArthur Foundation and the Urban Institute to address the connection between homelessness and incarceration. Missoula County will receive $246,254 to develop intervention strategies aimed at disrupting the cycle of homelessness and repeated interactions with the criminal justice system. The planning process will involve community engagement to explore the feasibility of building housing for those affected and consider policy changes to remove barriers to housing. Upon completing this planning phase, the County may receive additional funding to implement the strategy.

The jail-homelessness cycle remains a persistent issue in Missoula County, with studies showing significant interaction between homeless individuals and law enforcement. A local study found that almost half of the homeless population had adversarial encounters with law enforcement, and 30% had been jailed during their current period of homelessness. The project aims to mitigate these issues by providing housing solutions for justice-involved individuals, increasing personal stability, and enhancing community safety. Missoula County, Homeword, and their partners hope to create sustainable housing options and reduce reliance on jails through this initiative.

The Just Home Project is part of a broader effort by the MacArthur Foundation to promote criminal justice reform and reduce over-incarceration. Since 2018, Missoula County has been involved in the MacArthur Foundation's Safety and Justice Challenge, receiving over $1.8 million in grants to improve pretrial and re-entry services, develop diversion programs, and reduce racial disparities in the justice system. Learn more.

Mobile crisis response team: Missoula County, Partnership Health Center, Missoula Fire Department and the City of Missoula launched a project to create the Mobile Support Team consisting of a licensed clinical social worker and an EMT to assess and assist a person in crisis. A case facilitator follows up with individuals to ensure they are connected to appropriate community resources. Mobile crisis teams like this have been proven to reduce jail bookings and emergency room visits, decrease arrests and prosecutions, and allow for more appropriate use of law enforcement and first responder time. Research shows that every dollar spent on mobile crisis saves $5 to $7 elsewhere in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Partnership with UM’s National Native Children’s Trauma Center: This initiative aims to inform criminal justice employees of the devastating impacts of historical trauma of Native people and teach the practice of cultural humility.

Calibrate Pretrial Diversion Program: The Calibrate Pretrial Diversion Program, based in the Missoula County Attorney’s Office, provides an innovative way to address criminal cases. Calibrate seeks to reduce the number of individuals involved in the criminal justice system by diverting those deemed eligible at an early stage, thereby minimizing the negative impact on the participant, and saving taxpayer dollars, while still emphasizing community safety. The target population for Calibrate is first time, non-violent offenders. Participants in this voluntary program must adhere to a case plan that is tailored to their individual needs and circumstances. The Calibrate program uses the Risk-Need-Responsivity model to effect positive change with participants. Successful completion results in dismissal of the criminal charge. Pretrial diversion results in fewer individuals being involved both in the court system and the corrections system, resulting in a clear saving of taxpayer dollars. After five years in operation, Calibrate has seen an 87% success rate among enrollees.

Public Safety Study: In the fall of 2022, Missoula County began participating in a public safety study the University of Missouri, St. Louis, is conducting. Researchers will use this study to help develop and sustain innovative methods to make communities across the country safer. This started with a survey to identify and describe local trends in public safety, document current understanding of safety, identify what crimes are causing the biggest disruptions locally, and gather information from a broad range of stakeholders to develop an inclusive and community-driven definition and measurement of public safety. This study is being funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Safety and Justice Challenge Research Consortium grant. The Safety and Justice Challenge is a national initiative to safely reduce jail populations. It examines the efficiency of justice system processes and offers pretrial and re-entry programming and services based on local data and evidence-based screening methods. Missoula County is one of the 57 cities, counties and states participating in the consortium network. Since 2018, the County has received $1.8 million in grant funds from the MacArthur Foundation to reduce the jail population and recidivism. Learn more about jail diversion efforts.

Mobile crisis response team: Missoula County, Partnership Health Center, Missoula Fire Department and the City of Missoula launched a project to create the Mobile Support Team consisting of a licensed clinical social worker and an EMT to assess and assist a person in crisis. A case facilitator follows up with individuals to ensure they are connected to appropriate community resources. Mobile crisis teams like this have been proven to reduce jail bookings and emergency room visits, decrease arrests and prosecutions, and allow for more appropriate use of law enforcement and first responder time. Research shows that every dollar spent on mobile crisis saves $5 to $7 elsewhere in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Riverwalk Crisis Center: Missoula County, in partnership with local healthcare providers, opened the Riverwalk Crisis Center in fall 2023. The Center is a community-based facility for people experiencing a behavioral health crisis.

People experiencing a behavioral health crisis often end up in the emergency department or jail if there is no other place for them to go, and local government leaders, healthcare agencies and community members have long identified the need for a 24-hour walk-in mental health care center. Approximately 30% of patients in Providence St. Patrick Hospital’s Emergency Department go there due to a behavioral health need, and the Riverwalk Crisis Center provides a more effective, cost-efficient option for treating them.

Missoula County contributed $1.5 million to make the center a reality, mainly from federal funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act.

Historical Museum at Fort Missoula: The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula was established in 1975 to collect, preserve and interpret the history of Missoula County and western Montana for the education and cultural enrichment of visitors and area residents. The museum is a 32-acre historic park with more than 20 historic structures and a collection of more than 50,000 artifacts. Located at Fort Missoula, which was established in 1877 as a permanent military post built in response to requests from local townspeople and settlers for protection in the event of conflict with western Montana Indian tribes, it was also home to the 25^th Infantry Bicycle Corps in the late 1800s and the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. During World War II, it served as an alien detention center, and still holds the Post Cemetery, an active Class IV National Military Cemetery with an estimated 400 gravesites, over half of which are filled. Learn more about the museum on their website.

LaLonde Ranch: Missoula County owns the LaLonde Ranch, one of the last remaining historic ranches in the Missoula Valley. The site, located west of Missoula, is 6.81 acres and consists of a two-story brick ranch house, two wooden barns and a log cabin believed to have been built in the 1870s – among the oldest buildings in Missoula County. In October 2020, commissioners adopted a resolution in support of preservation of the LaLonde Ranch. Over the next few years, the County worked with Adler Architects to renovate and restore the historic ranch house, with a grand opening event in spring of 2023. The County now leases office space in the ranch house to the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition.

Missoula County Fairgrounds redevelopment: The Missoula Board of County Commissioners bought the Missoula County Fairgrounds for $16,000 in 1913. At the time, it was surrounded by farmland, and as Missoula grew, it became centrally located with a variety of uses. It now plays an important role in the community as a focal point and destination with a mission to promote agriculture, education, culture, recreation and community connection, and to reflect the beauty and history of Western Montana. In 2016, after an extensive public process, the County adopted a plan to redevelop the Fairgrounds that will preserve historic ties to community agriculture, develop 19 acres of open space, create more than a mile of trail connections, and more. The new Clouse-Bauer arena grandstands were installed in summer 2024. Visit the Missoula County Voice page to see where we're at in the redevelopment.

Map Missoula: This Missoula County Clerk and Recorder initiative aims to increase accessibility to property information and historical archives. The project will combine digitized archives and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data to connect historic Missoula with the one that exists today. The efforts began with documents contained in the Clerk and Recorder archives, such as hand-drawn tax assessment maps. With the help of community partners, including grants from the Montana State Library and the National Historical Publications and Records Division via the State Historical Records Advisory Board, the collection has grown steadily to include historic photographs and artworks of or inspired by Missoula County. These images will be pinned to digital maps of the area and historic maps will be overlaid on current ones using ArcGIS, allowing the public to browse, interact and engage with the community and its history. Recorded property records are currently being linked to the associated GIS parcel to provide a development background that could serve to inform land use and division decisions.

Waypoints: The Clerk and Recorder's Office also collects historical narratives about Missoula County that blends historical interpretation with the diverse archive of resources housed in Map Missoula, called Waypoints.

Historic federal building acquisition: In early 2023, Missoula County and the City of Missoula acquired the historical federal building, now known as the John Engen Local Government Building, which has sat nearly vacant for several years. The federal General Services Administration deemed the property as surplus, so the two local governments acquired the building at no cost and plan to consolidate local government services in one convenient location while preserving the historic character of the building.

COVID-19 Documentation Project: The Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, in partnership with the University of Montana, has been documenting the COVID-19 pandemic through a community archive project. The purpose of this project is to encourage agencies, organizations and individuals from across Missoula County to document their actions and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and to provide a mechanism for this documentation to be collected, maintained and shared as a community archive. Examples of content the project includes, but is not limited to, are photographs, social media posts, video clips, diaries, newsletters or emails from a business sharing updates with their employees or customers, business records, oral histories and creative works. Visit the University of Montana’s website to find out more. The project received a 2023 National Association of Counties Achievement Award.