Missoula County used most of its remaining federal COVID dollars to partially fund the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space for two more years and is currently looking for a way to find a new revenue source for the program.

The Temporary Safe Outdoor Space has 30 hard-sided structures meant to transition homeless people into permanent housing. The project is a collaboration with Missoula County, Hope Rescue Mission and United Way of Missoula. 

The contract for 2025 and 2026 totals $740,000 in American Rescue Plan dollars, which were directly given to the county from the federal government in 2021.

"It is such a successful project that it needs to be funded," Commissioner Josh Slotnick said. 

The remaining county ARPA dollars will be allocated to projects by the end of December, County Chief Financial Officer Andrew Czorny said on Thursday.

The shelter spaces are located on West Broadway Avenue next to the Missoula County Detention Center.

The Temporary Safe Outdoor Space has been one of the most effective homeless programs in Missoula. From January to September in 2024, the space has served 118 people.

Twenty-six of those people are now housed, eight are in long-term recovery and another 28 people are currently staying in the TSOS, according to April Seat, the director of outreach for Hope Rescue Mission.

A small number of units at the shelter are also dedicated to homeless youth.

Across Missoula, more than 200 homeless people are sleeping in the Poverello Center, the Johnson Street Shelter and the Temporary Safe Outdoor Space. On Monday, the city signed a two-year contract to run the Johnson Street Center.

Commissioners Slotnick and Dave Strohmaier said at a county meeting on Thursday that no new funding source has been identified, but it is the county's goal to keep the space open past 2026.

"Failure is not an option, it has been a great success story," Strohmaier said. "We don't have a clear plan for how we go past that fiscal cliff to keep it operational, but we are working on it."