Reasons Why Montana Ranks High For Helping the Homeless

Montana has its share of very generous people. I am reminded of this around the holidays every year when we do our annual "Guerrilla Turkey Drive" and "Kyssmas For Kids" fundraising events. There is something special about seeing the positivity and generosity that happens year after year around that time.

Montana also shows support to homeless people, more than a lot of other states do, according to SmileHub.org. They recently published a ranking of the "states that help homeless people the most" and Montana was ranked number 10 on the list.

I spoke with Luke Powers, the Business Manager of SmileHub.org, about Montana's ranking. We spoke about where Montana excels and where Montana could put more effort into helping. One area where Montana can increase help is housing, we rank 35th in "shelters and housing category". Luke spoke about that ranking:

Montana could improve by increasing support for emergency housing vouchers, where they ranked 47th, continuum of care program grants they ranked 38th, and charities that assist the homeless ranking 48th. 

With numbers that low, it is surprising that Montana would have a ranking in the top 10. Some of the reasons why our rankings are as high as they are have to do with the support that Montana gives our youth. They get a lot more support than other states. According to Luke:

So Montana excels in supporting homeless youth. They ranked third in the homeless youth support category. Where Montana has really helped, they ranked 1st in laws that help homeless youth graduate high school and enter housing contracts and also ranked 1st for having an expanded Medicaid policy and low unemployment rate.

Montana also ranks high in the amount of mental health care providers we have per capita where we rank 5th and healthcare centers for the homeless where we rank 9th. We also rank 10th when it comes to anti-homeless policies.

The homeless issues across the state are complex and not easy to solve. But there is some positivity to see Montana making an effort in helping, and doing much better at it than a lot of other states.  As Luke says about SmileHub.org:

Days are always better when you have positive stories to talk about.