A funding shortfall created by this year's Yellowstone County budget appears to have led directly to the closure of the HUB drop-in center.
The Mental Health Center, a 13-county organization that provides public mental health and homeless services to the region, announced last week the HUB would close permanently on Oct. 1 due to a gap in its funding.
Funding for the HUB comes from the Mental Health Center, which in turn receives its funding from the 13 counties using its services. Representatives from each county sit on the MHC board.
In budgeting for the upcoming year, Yellowstone County did not provide the funding it has traditionally directed to the Mental Health Center for the HUB. Instead, the county allocated a portion to Alternatives, Inc., a pre-release program that helps at-risk offenders learn life skills, deal with addiction and stay out of jail.Â
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The county funding redirected to Alternatives comes from the state and is generated from alcohol sales and distributed to individual counties to be used for alcohol prevention programs.Â
Each year, Yellowstone County receives roughly $250,000 to $300,000 in state alcohol money; 83% goes to the Rimrock Foundation, which treats addiction, and 17% in the past has gone to the MHC. But this year, the 17% was redirected to Alternatives.
The biggest chunk of Yellowstone County funding to go to the MHC comes from a mill levy worth $1.3 million passed by county voters in 2010. The language in the levy stipulates the money must be used on mental health services that aid law enforcement.
In the past, roughly 85% of that money has gone to the Community Crisis Center and 15% went to the MHC, which in turn funded the HUB. The funding is typically doled out in November.Â
In this year's budget, the county eliminated the language and the allocation proportions specific to the MHC and the Community Crisis Center. In its place, Yellowstone County inserted language that would be determined at a later date where the funding would go.
This fall, Yellowstone County plans to put the mill levy funding up for bid to area mental health and homeless services that want to apply for it. Commissioners will then award the bid to the organization that best fits the county's request for service.Â
"Let's find efficient ways to do things," said Denis Pitman, chairman of the board of Yellowstone County Commissioners.Â
Pitman expects services like the Mental Health Center, the Community Crisis Center and Rimrock all apply for the funding. By going through that process the organizations will then have to be accountable to county commissioners for the services they offer.
"One of the big differences is (it requires) a report back on how you're utilizing the funds," Pitman said. Â
In the meantime it's created uncertainty for the MHC Board around the funding it typically receives for the HUB. In the absence of secure funding, the board last month voted to close the HUB.
"It's Yellowstone County's money," said Carl Seilstad, chairman of the MHC board and a Fergus County commissioner. "They made the decision to redirect the money and we have to live with the decision."
It is what it is, he said.Â
"I'm a commissioner and we have to make those decisions all the time," he said.Â
Pitman and fellow commissioner Don Jones have long bristled at the way funding from this mill levy has been spent by the county. They've questioned the services provided by the HUB and argued that it duplicates services offered by other organizations in Billings.Â
It eventually became a point of conflict. Community leaders from various organizations, including the HUB, argued last summer that both Pitman and Jones seem to have little understanding of what services are offered by the various organizations in town and how they're administered.Â
Last summer, the commissioners looked for ways to move the HUB from its current location near the corner of 6th Avenue North and North 27th Street to the South Side, to the old Granny's Attic building owned by the Montana Rescue Mission on Minnesota Avenue.Â
The idea was met with significant pushback from community mental health leaders and it all culminated last fall when Pitman suddenly announced his resignation from the MHC board, citing his differing vision for mental health services from the rest of the MHC.Â
At that point, the commissioners decided the best option was to put the mill levy dollars up for bid. It had planned to put out a request for services earlier this spring and have all the mental health and homeless organizations in town bid for the mill levy funding.Â
The COVID-19 outbreak in March sidelined the process and now the county plans to put out its request for bids this fall.Â
Like the HUB, this move also creates uncertainty over the Community Crisis Center.Â
The Community Crisis Center is located two blocks from St. Vincent Healthcare and three blocks from Billings Clinic. It was launched in the early 2000s as a joint venture between the two hospitals and other community partners in an effort to ease pressure on the emergency departments at the hospitals and to help keep chronically intoxicated and mentally ill patients out of the county jail.
It is open 24 hours a day year-round and is often the first stop for those who are having a mental health crisis or are too intoxicated to function. They can stay only for 24 hours, enough time to get them assessed by mental health and substance abuse professionals and to connect them with the services best suited to help them.
Retrospective: 27th Street
Retrospective: 27th Street
North 27th Street looking northwest, 1900s
The bell tower of the old Yellowstone County Courthouse gave a panoramic view of Billings. This portion of a multi-part panorama shows North 27th Street looking northwest in the 1900s. The original Congregational Church can be seen, along with the lumber yard that once sat where the Billings Gazette building now stands.
North 27th Street looking southwest, 1900s
Some of the buildings in this portion of a 1900s panorama of downtown Billings are still standing. The Grand Hotel, near the center of the frame, has expanded over the years, but the window pattern on the northern half is still visible today. The short building next door to the Grand, occupied by the Billings Piano House in this photo, is home to the Burger Dive today.
Securities Building, 1920s
The Securities Building on the southwest corner of North 27th Street and First Avenue North was still new when this photograph was taken in the 1920s. Today, it is home to Walkers Grill. The original Northern Hotel can be seen in the background.
Intersection of North 27th Street and 9th Avenue North, 1975
In December 1975, the wife of a Billings banker was abducted and held for ransom. This phone booth, which stood at the corner of North 27th Street and Ninth Avenue North, was the location where the kidnapper told the banker to take the $500,000 ransom and wait for a call with further instructions. A detective posed as the banker in an attempt to track the kidnapper, who abandoned the plot after the wife was found alone and safe in a car in a nearby hospital parking lot.
27th Street from the Rims, 1976
The intersection of North 27th Street and Rimrock Road looked very different from today before it was completely rerouted in 1984. Drivers headed south from the airport had to make a sharp right turn onto Rimrock, past an Eastern Montana College parking lot that no longer exists.
27th Street from the Rims, 1976
North 27th Street has long been the main arterial street into downtown Billings, and is home to some of the tallest buildings in Montana. But in the 1970s, the skyline of Billings looked very different from today. This May 1976 photo shows the street as it appeared before the Wells Fargo Plaza (originally the First Northwestern Bank) and DoubleTree Hotel (originally the Sheraton) were built. A crane on the First Northwestern Bank construction site can be seen behind the Yellowstone County Courthouse.
North 27th Street from Rims, 1976
A temperature inversion caused the fog seen in this February 1976 photo of North 27th Street.
Intersection of North 27th Street and Fourth Avenue North, 1977
The busy downtown intersection of North 27th Street and Fourth Avenue North is seen from the top of the Billings Gazette building in 1977.Â
North 27th Street, December 1979
The Studio One adult theater at 18 North 27th Street was at the center of controversy during the construction of the Sheraton hotel in the late 1970s.
Grass fire below Rims, 1979
A grass fire below the Rims burned up to the shoulder of North 27th Street in September of 1979.
27th Street looking south, 1980
Most of the businesses to the left of this 1980 photo have either closed or moved. Among them were the Westward Ho Lodge (now the Rodeway Inn), the Aunt Chilotta Mexican restaurant (which moved into downtown) and The Red Door (which is now located on the West End).
North 27th Street from Sheraton Hotel, June 1980
Even while it was still under construction, the Sheraton Hotel provided unprecedented views of Billings.
North 27th Street, June 1980
This 1980 view of North 27th Street shows two buildings along Second Avenue North that were demolished to make way for the construction of the Park 3 parking garage and the expansion of City Hall in the early 1990s.
North 27th Street looking south from Fourth Avenue North, 1980
For a number of years, the Dude Rancher Lodge advertised with a large neon sign at the corner of North 27th Street and Fourth Avenue North.
27th Street from the Rims, 1980
The addition of the Sheraton Hotel, completed in 1980, was one of the most drastic changes to 27th Street. The building was the tallest in Montana at the time it was completed, and is still said to be the tallest load-bearing brick masonry building in the world.
27th Street from the Rims, 1980
Many of the buildings in the foreground of this 1980 photo have since been demolished to make way for medical corridor expansion. The diagonally oriented building to the right in the foreground was, at the time, home to a Burger Master restaurant, but was formerly home to an A&W restaurant and Wriggs Ice Cream.
North 27th Street, 1982
Houses along North 27th Street, 1982
Houses once lined portions of North 27th Street, but most of the homes were demolished in the 1980s. Today, only one house remains.
North 27th Street, April 1982
Before the construction of the Yellowstone County Detention Facility, the county jail was located in the upper floors of the Yellowstone County Courthouse. This 1982 photo shows a view similar to that which some inmates would have.
North 27th Street, December 1982
Candy cane lights line North 27th Street in this 1982 photo shot from the skybridge between the Park Two parking garage and the Grand Hotel.
Aerial of downtown Billings, June 1983
Several of the buildings in the foreground of this 1983 aerial photograph were demolished during expansion of the Yellowstone Art Center (now the Yellowstone Art Museum) and the Billings Gazette building.
House on North 27th Street, July 1984
Alfred and Jennie Bartz lived in this house at 311 N. 27th St. The house, built in 1899, was torn down in the 1980s.
Businesses on North 27th Street, 1990
The Aunt Chilotta taco stand is shown in 1990. The entire restaurant was trucked downtown to North 29th Street. The building was later home to the first iteration of Rocket's Gourmet Wraps, when it was known as Rocket Burrito.
27th Street looking south, 1990
Among the changes along North 27th Street since 1990 are the Sheraton Hotel, which is now the DoubleTree; Norwest Bank, which is now Wells Fargo Plaza; and the Juniper Inn, which is now the Rodeway Inn.
Buildings along North 27th Street, 1990
Two of Billings' tallest buildings, the Wells Fargo Plaza and the DoubleTree Hotel, had different names in 1990. Norwest and Wells Fargo merged in 1998, leading to the renaming of the Norwest Bank building. The Sheraton Hotel became the Crowne Plaza in 2006, and then the DoubleTree by Hilton in 2016.
Demolition on North 27th Street, July 1992
A building at 500 N. 27th St. was demolished in July 1992 to make way for the construction of the Burger King restaurant that still stands there today.
North 27th Street looking south, 1995
North 27th Street is seen looking south in this 1995 photo.
27th Street Pizza Hut, 2006
This Pizza Hut restaurant stood at 1126 N. 27th St. for 36 years before it was razed in 2006 to allow for more parking for St. Vincent Healthcare. It was Billings' first Pizza Hut.
North 27th Street looking south, 2007
This night view of North 27th Street shows what the street looked like in the mid-2000s, with the Crowne Plaza and Juniper Inn visible.
North 27th Street looking south, 2015
Flowers bloom along North 27th Street in this view of the Billings skyline from 2015.
North 27th Street looking north, 2018
Pedestrians and vehicles travel through rain and wind on North 27th Street in Billings during a rainstorm in April 2018. The sign for the Rimview Inn is visible on the right, but the building was in the process of being demolished.
Rob Rogers
City and County Government Reporter
City and county government reporter for the Billings Gazette.
