City Council Outlaws Urban Camping in Missoula Public Parks

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - After yet another marathon meeting to help solve the issue of urban camping, or camping in Missoula’s public parks, the Missoula City Council voted 9 to 3 in favor of an ordinance that was modified during the meeting after all councilors weighed in and voted.

I spoke with Ward 6 City Councilor Sandra Vasecka on Tuesday about what happened at the meeting.

Ward 6 Councilor Vasecka Received Support from a Majority of the City Council

“How this all started was that I wanted to basically ban the urban camping in parks, and a lot of my colleagues seemed to agree with me and had other amendments to the ordinance that we passed in June,” began Vasecka. “So they came to me with a couple of the changes that they wanted to introduce as well, and since I agreed with them, and Bob (Campbell of Ward 5) agreed with them, then we all just kind of came together to sponsor a bunch of amendments to the urban camping ordinance.”

Basically, Vasecka said you shouldn’t see any tents or campers in Missoula City Parks after January 3, 2025, when the ordinance takes effect.

“During daylight hours, they can use the park to hang out, to do normal park activities. What it prohibits is camping and essentially living in the parks. That makes it more black and white for the police officers and other law enforcement to patrol the area. When they're not supposed to be in the park, essentially at dark, then the police have a more black-and-white authority to just say, ‘Hey, you're not allowed to be here and you’ve got to move along’.”

It Was Revealed That Neither Shelter had Reached Capacity Forcing Urban Camping

One very revealing fact was uncovered when a city official was asked if either shelter, the Johnson Street Shelter, or the Poverello Center had reached capacity forcing people to camp in the park.

“When we hear from our professionals that work in that area that there is capacity in the shelters, then that just gave me more room to disallow the camping in the parks, because we do want to encourage folks to seek shelter, to use the resources that we have available, and then the nefarious folks who just want to live the transient life, who want to cause a ruckus, then they won't take advantage of our city and our resources that taxpayers are paying into,” she said. “Hopefully they'll see that we can’t be taken advantage of, and those folks will move along so that the resources that we do have available can be used for our local Missoulians, the ones that are down on their luck.”

Vasecka said there are appropriate avenues for people to report urban camping violations.

READ MORE: Missoula Urban Camping Working Group Takes Public Comments

There are Approximately 650 Houseless Persons in Missoula Currently

“There is an online urban camping reporting form,” she said. “Use your favorite search engine and type in ‘City of Missoula urban camping reporting’, and it will bring you right to it. You can also go to the City of Missoula web page and then under the banner, it says, ‘I want to’, and then you can find a place that says, ‘I want to report urban camping’, so that should be easily available to find.”

According to the City Council at Monday’s meeting, it was revealed that the houseless population in Missoula is approximately 650 people.

Click here to view the entire six hour Missoula City Council meeting.