Andres Gutierrez
Oct 28, 2021
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri assistant city manager Kimiko Black Gilmore presented solutions aiming to address homelessness in both the short-term and the long-term during a city council meeting on Thursday.
The short-term solution addresses how to keep the homeless warm during the winter months.
When it hits 32 degrees the city's emergency operation center will open, and will serve as the central hub for providing shelter to the homeless.
Shelters around the city will notify the emergency operation center how many beds are available. That information will be made available on an online dashboard. The city is still working to find a location to handle overflow once shelters hit their capacity.
For those who don't want to stay in shelters, the KCATA will provide warming buses that will go to homeless camps.
In the long-term, the city is considering three solutions addressing homelessness.
One option is to spend just over $1 million to convert the Days Inn on Linwood Blvd near Van brunt into transitional housing.
Another is to expand Amethyst Place to help families without a home.
The third option is to place pallet homes next to Hope Faith on Admiral and Virginia. Pallet homes range from 60 to 100 square feet, and are built from materials made to resists mold and pests. The city previously discussed plans to use pallet homes to address homelessness in May.
The city's efforts are expected to help around 200 to 300 people.
"We have to start somewhere. The some of the problems that we had was that there are things that we could have done early on in the year that we weren't able to do because there wasn't that support," Gilmore said. "This is the first step, but hopefully what this is going to do is to open up the minds of people that are out there, and then we will be able to do some more things for the for the homeless."
City council has not yet voted on the proposals.
Members of the Department of Housing and Community Development will continue to discuss the long-term homelessness solutions at the city council meeting on Nov. 3 at 4 p.m.