City leaders directed staff to identify ways to expand shelter capacity, strengthen outreach and connect unhoused residents to hospitality jobs ahead of the World Cup. The committee also approved a 6% increase to water and sewer rates.
homelessness
Posted inHousing
Working homelessness: When ‘getting a job’ isn’t enough in KC
Increasing numbers of sheltered families have jobs while a growing population is caught in the gap between the wages they earn and the cost of housing. It’s a formula for rising homelessness.
Posted inElections
Homeless in Kansas? Here’s how you can still vote
Being homeless in Kansas City, Kansas, comes with its own set of challenges. Wyandotte County has no permanent emergency shelters. And it has notably fewer resources and less funding available for homeless services than the Missouri side of the Kansas City area. Yet several agencies in that city and Wichita can help homeless people with […]
Posted inElections
What you need to know to vote as a homeless person in Kansas City
Douglas Zaerr has been voting since he turned 18 years old. Now 61, he last cast his vote on the stadium sales tax in April. He was homeless at the time. He found housing recently, but he’d been homeless for much of the past 10 years — and it never stopped him from casting a […]
Posted inKansas City
Kansas City is backing a low-barrier shelter — after objections stalled a similar plan
The Kansas City Council on Thursday unanimously approved funding for a low-barrier, year-round overnight homeless shelter in the northeast — the first of its kind in the city — after shelving a similar plan earlier this year. A low-barrier shelter accepts any person regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, condition or religious affiliation. Officials […]
Posted inHousing
Residents want input, concessions before backing a low-barrier homeless shelter in Northeast Kansas City
People gather near the Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus all day long. Some carry backpacks sagging with belongings. Others come empty-handed. Many have no interest in going inside. Instead, they hang out to chat, organize their belongings, or simply stare into space. In the blocks surrounding Hope Faith at 705 Virginia Ave., people sit in […]
Posted inKansas State Government
Calls for state aid grow as homelessness worsens across Kansas
Takeaways: Homelessness is rising across Kansas. It’s booming in Lawrence, where it increased 51% from 2020 to 2023. Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the Homeless Solutions Division for Lawrence, said that rise comes partly from people dropping off homeless people at camps in the city. Nearby hospitals, correctional facilities or mental health centers will pull up […]
Posted inHousing, Wichita Journalism Collaborative
Meet the group offering dinner with a side of community in a downtown parking lot
As the sun set on the parking lot of St. John’s Episcopal Church on North Topeka Street, volunteers began arriving, setting up tables, playing music and rolling out coolers. Every Thursday night, people from different walks of life congregate with a shared purpose: to meet the needs of downtown Wichita’s homeless population and anyone else […]
Posted inHousing, Local Government
Wichita counted 42 homeless deaths last year, but the count is suspect
At least 42 homeless people died in Wichita in 2023. But the actual number could be bigger. Neither Sedgwick County nor Wichita keeps records of people who die without stable housing. “We simply don’t have metrics,” said Shelly Steadman, the director of the regional forensic center in Sedgwick County. Without reliable data, it is harder […]
Posted inAccountability, Housing
Wichita’s homeless population grows to highest number in 12 years
What is driving Wichita’s homeless population to record numbers? This year’s homeless count recorded 702 homeless individuals, the highest number recorded by point-in-time counts going back to 2011. Homelessness is defined as living in shelters, transitional housing or conditions not meant for habitation, including on the streets. This definition does not include people who may […]