HELENA — Temperatures have been dangerously cold for several days as Montana faces some of the winter's most frigid weather. MTN spoke with unsheltered individuals and a community organization to learn more about what they've been experiencing.
On Tuesday night, the Helena Valley's temperature dropped to more than 30 degrees below zero. A brutal temperature for anyone, let alone the people in our community living daily outside.
Christopher Heibner is an unsheltered individual living in Helena. He stays at God’s Love Shelter, sleeping on the facility’s floor at night, and comes to Our Place during the day to escape the cold. Heibner says resources like this are critical for Helena’s homeless population during cold weather like this.
“It helps us survive the rough times, especially when it gets cold and it's negative degrees out at night,” he told MTN.
Nicolas McCaskill also knows what being outside in the frigid cold is like.
“When I was homeless, it was really hard for me to find a place that would accept my dog," said McCaskill. "I came in when I was homeless, and my dog's my emotional support animal through the state, so it was really hard finding a place or places to let him go in there while I was trying to get warm or doing my appointments and stuff."
In 2022, he started coming to Our Place and using its resources. McCaskill found housing in October 2024 but still uses Our Place's resources.
“I have housing now, but I try to come here daily," noted McCaskill. "To use their services. Still. They help me out with different things. It's really important for a lot of us because it's either just the library or go find a staircase to chill in during the cold or go find a place that might allow us to stay inside, like a coffee shop, and they really don't allow us to do that, unless we buy some papers."
Mikayla Kapphan, Our Place's program coordinator, told MTN about the challenges extreme cold can pose for Helena’s homeless population and how her organization is trying to help.
“I think they're struggling. Walking from one spot to another is a struggle without being frostbitten. We've had a couple of cases of frostbite so far. Being outside is extremely dangerous, but they have multiple places they can come in, especially here; you know, we're open from 8:30 am to 3 pm”.
Good Samaritan Ministries recently began running a free shuttle service between God's Love Shelter and the new Our Place location at 1531 National Avenue.
(Good Samaritan explains how their new shuttle will help people experiencing homelessness in Helena)
Kapphan added that about 30 people stopped by our place on Wednesday for warmth, shelter, food, and other resources.
