When do KC homeless encampments need to move? Mayor Lucas says it likely won’t be soon
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas met with members of the Kansas City Homeless Union at a picnic bench in between the statue of Abraham Lincoln and City Hall’s south steps Tuesday. The meeting came after more than 24 hours of worry and fear of a possible sweep spread across two of Kansas City’s most prominent homeless encampments.
“I don’t foresee any movement any time soon,” Lucas said of the two camps — a sprawling 30-tent camp at the intersection of Westport Road and Southwest Trafficway, and a 50-tent camp on the south lawn of City Hall. He didn’t give further clarity on the topic.
James Shelby, 60, who goes by Qadahfi, sat across from the mayor and Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw outside City Hall. Qadahfi, a leader of the homeless union, was flanked by members of KC Tenants as he told Lucas about issues they’ve experienced at the encampment. He reiterated the union’s demands: homes, jobs, water and a seat at the table where decisions are being made.
“We finally found our voice,” Qadahfi said after the meeting, which lasted more than an hour. “If we’re not at the table, it’s fraudulent.”
Historically, solutions aimed at addressing homelessness are equivalent to “putting a band-aid over a shotgun wound,” Qadahfi said. Instead, he and other leaders brainstormed long-term solutions with Lucas. They are a historic union, he said, and in turn, they’re looking for a historic response.
The camp at City Hall was set up at the start of February. The one along Westport Road arrived two weeks later, beginning on Valentine’s Day weekend. Both camps expanded to become highly visible and public protests calling for Kansas City to find better, long-term solutions to housing the approximate 2,000 people without homes. Advocates also use the term “unhoused,” noting that many people have homes, such as their tents, but what they really lack are houses.
The meeting Tuesday came on the heels of notices from the city that informed encampment residents that they had to move by April 4.
“I think that was just the official notification,” Lucas said of the notice. “But I don’t necessarily think it’s a trigger of any type of enforcement activity.”
Asked Monday by The Star about the city’s plan, city spokesman Chris Hernandez did not specifically say when the camps might be removed, or even if they would be.
“We will continue to do outreach, as we have for the last several weeks,” he wrote, “offering services and helping with trash removal. Our number one goal is to make sure people who want help and services are able to get access to those services.”
There is still no clear answer on whether the encampments will be cleared, or when.
But Qadahfi said he felt optimistic following his meeting with Lucas, adding that he didn’t imagine they’d be on City Hall’s lawn much longer, as better solutions were coming.
“There’s a moment where Kansas City could choose to govern differently and govern in a way that’s actually more democratic and puts people first over property, and I just hope that we take it,” said Wilson Vance, the campaign manager for KC Tenants, who sat in on the conversation Tuesday.
“But, I think the only way that’s going to work is if there’s continued dialogue, and not only just dialogue but an actual reflection of what the people are saying they need in policy, because you can meet with someone on a picnic table outside of City Hall every day for the next two months, but if it doesn’t reflect actual good policy for the people that it impacts the most, then we don’t want it.”
The mayor said he planned to meet with the homeless union again at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday to continue discussing possible paths forward, including renovating land bank structures for unhoused people and finding transitional housing through access to hotel and motel rooms for those who don’t wish to stay in shelters.
Lucas, who himself experienced homelessness as a child, said he would continue showing up to the encampments until a solution was reached.
“The question is, ‘when do people have to move?’ I think the answer right now is ‘I have no idea,’” Lucas said Tuesday afternoon. “My view is that it’s more important for us to actually try to make sure that we have services for folks here in the short term, and then showing that there are also long-term opportunities as well.”
He said it’s about more than just getting a portable toilet on City Hall grounds, in reaction to bodily fluids and other waste that was discovered in City Hall air vents and the fountains. On a larger scale, it’s about getting people into hotel rooms, or shelters, and eventually into a house or apartment, he said.
Safety is also a concern. The evening before, officers responded to City Hall’s south lawn after a report that seven people were fighting — one of whom was armed with a machete and another with a shovel, according to the Kansas City Police Department. Security said the assault was captured on City Hall’s video cameras.
Pooled blood was found just south of Oak and East 11th streets. Residents said a person bleeding from his head was seen near the Sprint Center, but police could not find him. Officers recovered the “large machete-style weapon” on the south lawn area, but no one at the encampment said they saw anything.
“It troubles me that we have blood splattered outside of City Hall because there was a machete attack yesterday,” Lucas said Tuesday. “That is not something that we should just leave people to have to fend with and deal with.”
He talked with the homeless union about working to self-police the area to make sure it’s known that weapons aren’t welcome in the encampment, adding that the safest place for people is in housing that gives them dignity.
Shortly after his meeting with the union, Lucas met with Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus leaders at a local hotel being used in part as a temporary dormitory for individuals who are homeless.
As of Tuesday, the hotel, which opened a floor to Hope Faith in January, was housing 29 adults and 21 kids.
Though the program through Hope Faith will end later this month, Lucas said he hopes to scale up the concept in order to accommodate closer to 500 people in similar dorm-like settings using partnerships with hotels and motels as a form of transitional housing.
“This offers individuals and families something they have largely not gotten for years, which is privacy, which is some level of dignity, it is your own bathroom, your own space to think, and importantly, services that are right down the hallway,” he said.
The city is also exploring the possibility of using city-owned land to create an outdoor encampment that offers services nearby for those who want independence outside of a shelter setting.
Lucas said the idea was borne largely from conversations with the union leaders, many of whom asked: “if we’re not at City Hall, if we’re not at Westport, where do we go?”
This concept, Lucas said, would move beyond “finding an undesirable piece of land as I’ve seen in other cities, and saying ‘everybody just go there.’”
“To me this is not an enforcement issue and this is not very simply just some sort of administrative issue,” Lucas said. “Instead this is an issue of how do we center housing and housing opportunities for all?”
Qadahfi said he’s feeling optimistic, but he said he won’t believe the end result until he sees it.
“But so far,” he said, “so good.”
The Star’s Luke Nozicka and Eric Adler contributed.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 4:04 PM.
CORRECTION: An initial version of the story included an incorrect spelling of Qadahfi. The story has been updated.
