Missoula report links housing instability to justice involvement; cites Native overrepresentation and drops in jail bookings at Blue Heron Place

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…