Aid for Friends seeks $30,000 from county to cover shelter operations amid funding limits

Michelle Polleti, executive director of Aid for Friends, told the Bannock County Board of Commissioners the organization is requesting $30,000 in county support to continue operating its 90‑day shelter and related services.

Polleti said federal grants for shelter operations have practical caps: "The most that we receive from federal grants for that is 38,000. That's the most that HUD would approve for us," she said, adding that $38,000 does not cover full operating costs such as salaries, utilities and insurance. Aid for Friends supplements federal funding with other grants and local fundraising.

The shelter, Polleti said, runs 365 days a year and provides meals, laundry, weekly case management and referrals to permanent supportive housing. The program has a 90‑day maximum stay for the shelter program, and Aid for Friends operates a separate permanent supportive housing program with 11 units the organization owns for households in which the head has a disability and has been chronically homeless.

Polleti told commissioners the shelter is seeing more newcomers this year, including people from Montana, Texas, Arizona and Oklahoma, and an increase in first‑time homelessness tied to rising rents and property buyouts. She said word‑of‑mouth and agency referrals drive many shelter intakes; Aid for Friends works closely with the Crisis Center, Family Services Alliance, veterans' services and other local agencies.

Polleti also said Aid for Friends reexamined a prior local practice that barred people from shelter within 24 hours of leaving jail and found no HUD rule requiring that restriction; the organization now works with drug court and case managers to place people exiting jail when appropriate. Polleti said the shelter does not receive payments from the jail.

Commissioners did not take a vote on the request during the presentation and said the county would consider it during budget deliberations.