Missoula County Commissioners Juanita Vero and Dave Strohmeyer heard on their podcast this week from Carissa Trujillo of Homeward and Mackenzie Javorca, a researcher and program evaluator at the Rural Institute at the University of Montana, about findings from the Just Home project linking housing insecurity and justice involvement in Missoula County.
The report, produced in collaboration between Homeward, the Missoula County Community Justice Department and the Rural Institute as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge work, found that “being unhoused increases the likelihood of becoming justice involved and vice versa,” Javorca said. The study combined Missoula’s coordinated entry data, Missoula County Detention Facility booking records (focused on 2023), interviews with 26 local service providers and systems staff, and two community pop-up events attended by more than 60 people with lived experience.
Why it matters: Housing instability and criminal-legal involvement interact in ways that make both problems harder to solve. The report identifies specific, locally observable patterns and programs that county leaders and partner agencies say could interrupt the cycle.
Key findings
- Transition-age youth (roughly ages 17–24) make up about 10% of Missoula’s unhoused population in the county’s coordinated entry system data; the report’s authors say that population is likely undercounted because many young people are couch-surfing or otherwise not entering formal systems. Javorca said many youths “are also a lot less likely to access traditional homeless services like shelters.”
- Native American residents are overrepresented among Missoula’s unhoused population and among unhoused people booked into the county jail. The report found Native Americans account for about 15% of unhoused residents but made up about 25% of unhoused people booked into the county jail in 2023 who did not have an address at booking, Javorca said.
- The most common charge among unhoused people booked into jail in 2023 was failure to appear on a court date, accounting for about one-quarter of those bookings. The report notes that failure to appear can reflect barriers to getting to court for people focused on daily survival or dealing with untreated behavioral health or substance-use issues.
Bright spots and local interventions
Speakers highlighted local programs that align with evidence-based practices aimed at reducing jail use among people experiencing homelessness. Carissa Trujillo described coordinated entry and local partnerships and recommended scaling effective programs.
Trujillo and Javorca pointed to several local efforts:
- Shelter court and municipal court collaborations that let unhoused people appear via Zoom at familiar locations, reducing failure-to-appear bookings.
- Monthly resource-access days at the public library connecting people with pretrial assistance and other services.
- Blue Heron Place, permanent supportive housing co-owned by the Missoula Housing Authority and Homeward with on-site services from Partnership Health Center and overnight staff from the Poverello Center. Trujillo said Blue Heron’s first-year metrics showed 74% of residents “maintained their housing” and an 84% rate of positive housing outcomes; she said the site saw a 62.5% reduction in jail bookings for residents in the first year (the program served roughly 30–40 people, including some couples).
- A new watershed navigation center adjacent to the jail designed to provide health and social services for people reentering the community after detention; program leaders told the podcast there has been intentional work to make the center culturally responsive to Native community members.
Comparisons and models
The report’s team also visited other communities, including Sioux Falls, Denver and Bozeman, to review models such as Bozeman’s Housing First Village (tiny homes on owned land with on-site low-barrier services). Javorca said some models may be adaptable to Missoula but noted land and development costs present constraints.
Recommendations and next steps
Javorca and Trujillo summarized recommendations in the full Just Home report published on Homeward’s website. They highlighted priorities including more targeted permanent supportive housing (including youth-focused options), expanded transitional and sober living arrangements for people reentering the community from jail or prison, improved tracking and evaluation of interventions, and community efforts to reduce stigma about homelessness. Trujillo and service providers said funding — rather than a lack of provider interest — is the primary barrier to expanding services.
What officials said
Commissioner Juanita Vero framed the conversation on the podcast and asked about measurable impacts of housing interventions on other systems such as emergency departments and jail costs. Javorca replied that the community is still building longitudinal tracking but that Blue Heron Place produced measurable reductions in emergency department visits and inpatient days for at least some residents.
Where to read more
The Just Home report and supporting materials are available on Homeward’s website. Trujillo and Javorca said the findings are intended to inform local planning and possible future legislative outreach; the podcast hosts noted the state legislature will be in session again in 2027.
Ending
Speakers emphasized that Missoula already has many service providers engaged with this population and that adding housing units — especially targeted permanent supportive and transitional options — would make it easier for case managers and other providers to connect clients with services and reduce cycling into the jail or emergency care.