Livingston’s Emergency Overnight Shelter Opening Date Postponed Due to Lack of Staff

HRDC has been forced to delay opening the doors of its Warming Center until more employees are hired and trained.
 
LIVINGSTON, MT — HRDC is actively seeking applicants for several positions at its Livingston location emergency shelter. Due to a shortage in staff, community members in need of a warm safe place to stay must either continue sleeping outdoors or make their way to Bozeman to stay at HRDC’s Warming Center on Wheat Drive.

 
Jenna Huey, HRDC’s Emergency Shelter Services Manager, explained the challenges she has faced in recruiting staff for both of the shelters she oversees for HRDC, “We have experienced staffing shortages since Covid occurred. This year has been especially difficult for us. We were forced to close our Day Center in Bozeman for six weeks and now we are unable to open our  Livingston shelter on November 1st as originally planned. It is distressing to know there are people out there who need a place to stay, and we can’t provide it to them, especially with the change in weather we are experiencing.”

 
Huey has been working closely with the hiring team at HRDC to recruit for the open positions using both traditional and non-traditional methods for more than two months but has had little luck in finding qualified candidates to work at its Livingston location. Huey is hopeful that will change with the interviews she currently has scheduled; however, she wants the Park County community to know that the shelter is in need of more applicants.

 
“We know our luck is running short with the mild fall temperatures we’ve enjoyed this year. It is imperative that we get our shelter open in Livingston as soon as possible. Last year, during the coldest month of the year, we provided overnight accommodations to 12 people per night in Livingston. That number grew closer to 20 on many nights. We simply can’t abide having preventable tragedies like severe frostbite, hypothermia, and even death occur in our community. We know that many of our neighbors would want to pitch in, including applying for a position, if they knew of the staffing challenges we are having right now,” said Brian Guyer, HRDC’s Director of Housing.

 
More information about HRDC and the Livingston Warming Center can be found at https://thehrdc.org/housing/homeless-services/emergency-shelter/livingston-shelter/ and open job postings at the Livingston shelter can be found at https://hrdc.bamboohr.com/jobs/view.php?id=487&source=thehrdc.
 
 
HRDC is a private, not-for-profit Community Action Agency focused on building a better community through nearly 50 different initiatives aimed at combating poverty in southwestern Montana.
 

HRDC’s Livingston Warming Center Facts, 2021-2022 Winter Season:

★ The Livingston Warming Center has a capacity for 20 guests seeking shelter