'This is huge': Long-awaited 16-room Family Promise Shelter to open in Helena Helena IR Christine Compton City Reporter September 23, 2026 After three years of planning, two years of construction and multiple changes in leadership, Family Promise celebrated the near completion of its new 16-room shelter in Helena on Tuesday, aiming to house children and their families who are at risk of homelessness. The Family Promise Shelter, formerly called Ruth’s Place in early development, is expected to finish construction in early October, Family Promise Executive Director Madison Ragsdale said. She and Family Promise President Randal Rake cut a ribbon in front of the building, inviting over 30 attendees to tour the new location. The space, located at 2814 N. Cooke St., expands on a former Family Promise administrative building, adding a two-story shelter containing both single and connected bedrooms. From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., families who qualify will be able to stay overnight, usually for six-month stays or until a family has found housing. Guests are forbidden from having a history of violent crime or crimes against children, and families must have a legal reason to watch over their children, whether the guardians are moms, dads, grandparents or something else, Ragsdale said. Guests must also be drug-free. “We let the child define what the family is to them, and as long as there is a legal justification, we will accommodate that,” Ragsdale said. Every morning, families will be shuttled to the main Family Promise headquarters at 311 Power St. inside of First Christian Church, which acts as a day shelter for children not at school or parents looking for work. It is also the home of five additional rooms for families, two of which are currently filled, Family Promise Vice Chair Patty Butler said. The regular movement helps connect guests with resources and keeps up their momentum, Ragsdale said. Staying in place for too long, even for a day, can discourage families from finding their next home, she said. Emily McVey, the United Way of the Greater Helena Area’s executive director, said the shelter’s opening is “critically” important. These 16 rooms are the first new beds in the shelter system in 20 years, McVey said. Even better, they are specific for children, who make up one of the two highest-growing unhoused populations in Montana, according to an annual Point-in-Time snapshot survey. In the last three years, though homelessness numbers are relatively stable, the state is seeing more 18-year-olds who have just aged out of shelter programs and more people over 50, McVey said. September 2025 Helena Public Schools data showed around 300 students experienced housing instability in the 2024-2025 school year, “This is huge, I mean huge, to have beds for different risk groups,” McVey said. When will it open? Family Promise expects to welcome its own clients to the new space starting in January, which makes room for a fellow nonprofit in need: The Friendship Center. The Friendship Center (TFC), founded in 1971, is a shelter and resource center for those affected by domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and similar crimes across Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties. Not all of its services are for housing, but providing a secure landing zone is a critical part of the nonprofit’s mission, TFC Executive Director Kim Patterson said. When a May fire system pipe burst, destroying five of TFC’s 13 available rooms, it had to resort to placing clients in hotels or offering other means of shelter, Patterson said Family Promise announced it would take in TFC’s clients in August, and the Family Promise Shelter will open its doors to them as soon as occupancy is approved by the city of Helena. That is expected to be in October, Ragsdale said. When TFC clients come into the space, they will operate under TFC rules, including allowing for a daytime stay, Patterson said. It makes for less red tape, she said. “I have no words for what a wonderful partnership this is and how grateful we are,” Patterson said. “(Family Promise) has made it so much easier.” The long road to completion The project went through multiple hands before its projected finish. Some of those were former Family Promise Executive Director Renee Bauer, who retired around July. “Thank goodness it’s finished!” Bauer said, watching painters put the final touches on the building. Some of the last steps include installing railing on the back fire escape and handling a required sidewalk. Bauer characterized the road to completion as bumpy. Family Promise has been working on a children’s shelter for four years. Major headway was made in 2024 when fellow nonprofit Good Samaritan Ministries joined the project, uniting Bauer’s goals of a children’s shelter and Good Samaritan’s Theresa Ortega’s women’s shelter project, then titled “Ruth’s Place.” The Ruth’s Place solo project had already seen several hurdles at that point, including a sudden loss of its original projected location at 631 N. Last Chance Gulch when a neighboring property owner purchased the space. That neighbor had previously opposed the Ruth's Place project and said the unhoused were bad for business. The original vision was a 16-room, two-story shelter that would be called the "Our Place" drop-in center by day and the emergency women’s and children’s shelter "Ruth’s Place" by night. The building is located at 2814 N Cooke St., which Family Promise already owned before renovations began. However, Good Samaritan Ministries pulled out of the project in spring 2025 after a sudden leadership change, taking Our Place with it. Dan Bartleson of the Catholic Diocese of Helena, Good Samaritan’s parent organization, previously said there wasn’t enough financial strength to run a women’s shelter. It upended Family Promise’s plans, but Ragsdale said though it was still fundraising for $200,000, it planned to open the shelter regardless. As a whole, the project was projected in 2025 to cost over $1.2 million. The remaining $200,000 fundraising goal will go toward outstanding construction costs, furnishing the space and similar tasks, Ragsdale said Tuesday. She asked Helenans to listen for upcoming events Family Promise will host. "We pushed through, and we got through all the hurdles," Family Promise's Rake said. "... We couldn't have done it without our community."