The Flathead Warming Center will reopen Thursday night after a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing the city of Kalispell from revoking the shelter’s permit. In the decision issued Thursday afternoon, Judge Dana Christensen wrote that Kalispell had used a “subjective, nebulous, and thus a meaningless basis” for rescinding the permit. The injunction will allow the warming center to operate until a final decision in the case is made. “We’re elated that we can keep helping people through the worst of the winter,” Tonya Horn, executive director of the Flathead Warming Center, said in a press release. “With this decision, we will be here to provide warmth, safety and support to those who need it most. We plan to do so with our community’s continued support as we work with everyone to take care of our most vulnerable neighbors. This winter is expected to be harsh, and we’ll do everything we can to keep our community’s homeless residents safe and out of the cold.”The decision by the city council to revoke the conditional-use permit of the area’s only low-barrier shelter in September followed a months-long debate about the future of the warming center. The facility opened in late 2019 as a low-barrier shelter near downtown Kalispell. Kalispell has one other shelter, the Samaritan House. Many shelters require people staying there not to be using drugs or have a criminal background, but a low-barrier shelter does not have those requirements. The shelter was open nightly from October until April. When the shelter first opened it had 20 beds but later expanded to 50. Horn said those beds were full almost every night, and the shelter often turned people away.  But since the shelter opened at its current location on North Meridian Road in 2020, there have been complaints about the facility and its impact on the surrounding area. City Council President Chad Graham said he had heard from constituents who had found human waste and drug paraphernalia in their neighborhood. He also alleged that the warming center was attracting more homeless people to the area, although officials with the Flathead Warning Center refute that claim. Graham said that ultimately a condition of the original permit was that the operation of the warming center have little impact on nearby residents and businesses. On Sept. 16, following two hours of public comment and debate, the Kalispell City Council voted 6-3 to revoke the Flathead Warming Center’s permit, effectively shutting it down before winter. But just three weeks later, attorneys with the Institute for Justice — a national nonprofit public interest law firm — filed a lawsuit on behalf of the warming center. In its suit, attorneys wrote that the city violated the warming center’s property rights by revoking the conditional use permit. Attorneys argued during a hearing in Missoula on Oct. 25 that the non-profit would have never purchased the building on North Meridian if it did not have the right to use it as it saw fit. “The court’s decision will protect the homeless this winter and reinforce that the Constitution protects all of us, even those with the least power and influence,” Institute for Justice senior attorney Jeff Rowes said in a press release. “The facts section of Judge Christensen’s decision is a devastating account of the injustice the City inflicted on the Warming Center and on the homeless people it serves.”Doug Russell, Kalispell’s city manager, told Montana Free Press later Thursday afternoon that the city doesn’t comment about ongoing litigation.This article was updated on Nov. 7, 2024, to include a statement from Doug Russell.The post Flathead shelter to reopen after judge issues preliminary injunction appeared first on Montana Free Press.