A view of Missoula from Mount Sentinel, Montana.
Photographer: Shunyu Fan/iStockphoto via Getty Images
Missoula Passes Homeless Encampment Law on Eve of Supreme Court Ruling
Visible homelessness has sparked an identity crisis in the Montana mountain town, where a new ordinance restricts outdoor camping just as the US Supreme Court considers the question.
When Brad Carlson got home a little after 1:30 in the morning on a recent Tuesday, the Missoula City Council was still in session.
By the time the gavel sounded to adjourn the meeting at 3:49 a.m., it was clear that Carlson’s home — a tent pitched on the bank of the Clark Fork River in downtown Missoula — wouldn’t be permitted to stay up much longer. At that 10-hour hearing, the city’s longest in 18 years, Missoulians passionately argued over how to address homeless encampments that have popped up all over town.