With its funding set to run out this summer, the Mobile Support Team is prepared to sign a three-year lease for a new headquarters starting Dec. 1.
The Missoula City Council voted to authorize the mayor to sign a lease agreement for an office to house the MST on Prince Street during a meeting Wednesday. Missoula voters on Nov. 8 rejected a measure that would have funded the MST in perpetuity by taxing homeowners $27 a year per $100,000 of assessed home value.
The team, according to Assistant Fire Chief Brad Davis, has been in search of a new space for a few years. It currently operates out of the Missoula Fire Department.
While the team lined up a few space options in the past, those ultimately fell through, Davis explained.
Meanwhile, the first responders on the MST sit at a table behind an ambulance in the fire station. Cold temperatures and a chaotic environment make it difficult for the team to work there, Davis said. Case facilitators, for example, usually go to local coffee shops to conduct phone calls with their clients.
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This situation “is inadequate for the team I believe and the work that they are doing,” said Davis.
Davis acknowledged the tenuous future of the MST in his presentation to council Wednesday, but he stressed now is the time to provide resources to the first responders in the program.
“I think this is a huge step in the right direction to let this team know we appreciate them and we are in this for the long haul,” he said.
There’s also the possibility that the city could sublet the space in the future if the MST isn’t using it.
Members of the council agreed with Davis’ assessment of the situation.
“I think by approving this lease today we are taking a step forward honestly in articulating policy that we think the Mobile Support Team is a component that we’re going to need to figure out in some form or fashion and in some capacity to try and fund it,” said Ward 3 Councilor Gwen Jones.
The $2,800 in rent would come out of the MST’s operating budget for the fiscal year. The MST recently received an additional grant for crisis diversion services that provides additional money to fund the rental payments.
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