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HUB will close in October, services moving to other locations in downtown Billings

Billings Gazette - 7/31/2020

Jul. 31--The HUB Drop-In Center in downtown Billings will close Oct. 1, following a decision by the South Central Montana Regional Mental Health Center board.

"It was a difficult decision," said Carl Seilstad, chairman of the center's board and a Fergus County commissioner. "It basically comes down to funding."

The HUB, near the corner of North 27th Street and Sixth Avenue North, is a resource center that helps the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless find support, vocational and social skills training, meals and supplies. It also connects them with vital government resources.

Services provided by the HUB, including the Project to Assist in the Transition from Homelessness, or PATH program, will be moved to other agencies in town. PATH will move to the Mental Health Center at 1245 N. 29th St.

The only service to be discontinued will be the drop-in help and noon meals offered by HUB staff.

The decision to close the HUB was made during the July board meeting of the South Central Montana Regional Mental Health Center, a 13-county coalition that includes Yellowstone County and provides public mental health services to the region.

Seilstad said the coalition was looking at a $300,000 to $400,000 gap in its budget. By shuttering the HUB and moving its services to other locations the regional Mental Health Center will be able to close that budget gap, he said.

In balancing the budget, the board had to be cognizant of all the communities it serves.

"The Center provides a valuable service to 13 other counties," he said.

The building and the land on which the HUB sits is owned by the MHC board could be sold at some point. Until then, the building will be locked up and shuttered once it closes on Oct. 1, Seilstad said.

The MHC board has no immediate plans to sell the property.

"We really haven't gotten down that road too far," Seilstad said. "Everything's on the table right now."

One possibility is a purchase by the Holiday gas station and convenience store next door to the HUB. The convenience store's proximity to the HUB has led to issues with loitering and calls for service from law enforcement.

Yellowstone County Commissioner Denis Pitman said Holiday has had a standing offer for the HUB property and may be interested in expanding onto the lot.

"They'll sell it, I'm sure," Pitman said of the MHC board.

The announcement of the HUB's closure caps a debate over the drop-in center that's played out within the community for years. The HUB has been at the heart of a long-running conflict over how Yellowstone County should provide and pay for mental health and homeless services in town.

Yellowstone County commissioners in recent years have expressed a desire to consolidate mental health, homeless and transient services to one location on Billings'South Side. Already Family Services and St. Vincent de Paul have moved to First Avenue South.

The Montana Rescue Mission, which is working to secure millions of dollars in federal and local funding to expand its services, runs its Men's Shelter on Minnesota Avenue. At one point last year, the Mission and the county commissioners were working to convince the MHC to relocate the HUB to one of the Mission's vacant buildings on Minnesota.

Part of the push for consolidation is the commissioners' desire to make sure the county is responsible with the funding it provides to organizations like the HUB and that if need be, the county find better or more effective programs on which it can use that money.

That funding is the $873,000 annually from the county's mental health mill levy, passed by voters in 2010. The language in the mill levy stipulates that those tax dollars are to be spent by the county on services that provide mental health services that would have a direct impact on assisting law enforcement.

Currently, that money helps fund the Mental Health Center, the HUB and the Community Crisis Center.

On Thursday, Pitman reiterated the importance of the services offered by the HUB and was grateful most of those services would continue elsewhere in Billings.

He added that the HUB's closure potentially plays a large role in the commission's goal to consolidate services in town, something that he said is needed as Billings continues to grow and works to attract people and businesses downtown.

Change, like moving the services offered by the HUB, can be positive, he said.

"We just adapt and we get better at doing things," he said.

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(c)2020 the Billings Gazette (Billings, Mont.)

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