Kansas City to spend $400,000 to convert hotel into transitional housing for homeless
An old Days Inn hotel in Kansas City will be converted into transitional housing for those experiencing homelessness.
The Kansas City City Council approved the plan earlier this month to allocate $400,000 to create a “Housing Navigation Center” through a partnership with Lotus Care House.
Jennifer Tidwell, interim director of the city’s Housing and Community Development Department, said in a news release that the goal of the center is to serve as a “more permanent housing-focused alternative to emergency shelter.”
The former Days Inn at 5100 E. Linwood Blvd. will soon be repurposed to create 39 rooms for people experiencing houslessness, with an emphasis on those 55 and older, single women, those with medical concerns and the LGBTQ+ community.
The plan for the center includes wrap around services for residents, including health care, housing placement assistance and social services, city officials said.
“The long-term focus will be to transition individuals and families into permanent housing, although residents at this location will be able to stay as long as needed,” according to a news release from the city outlining the plan.
City Manager Brian Platt said the $400,000 is slotted for the center’s first year, with plans to turn to funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Continuum of Care for the years after.
“This facility will greatly expand the City’s capacity to serve the homeless community here,” Platt said in the release. “We estimate being able to relocate 100 or more individuals each year from living on the street into this new facility and eventually into permanent housing every year.”
Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw added that while the newest hotel initiative is a big step forward, there’s still plenty more work to do.
Extreme weather plan
Last month, Kansas City also unveiled its extreme weather plan to help those experiencing houselessness find shelter and aid as the cold weather sets in.
A key part of the plan is an online dashboard that will be updated daily on the city’s website to track shelter and bed availability across the city.
The dashboard, created by staff in the Data KC Office, is part of the city’s new plan to increase coordination of services for the those without a house.
Tracking shelter bed capacity will help see trends and prepare better to help when extreme weather hits, Platt said.
“It will create new data that will help the city, as well as all the shelters, with both short and long-term planning and resource allocation,” he said.
The plan is activated when daytime maximum temperatures drop below 32 degrees or the overnight low is less than 20 degrees.
The plan includes:
- The city’s Emergency Center opening a hotline to coordinate shelter bed availability,
- RideKC offering frees bus rides to shelters and allows people to warm up on heated buses, and
- The city opening one or two temporary locations when shelters reach capacity.
Community members are welcome to lend a hand, especially by dropping off supplies and making donations.
A centralized drop-off location has been established at City Union Mission’s Community Assistance Center at 1700 E. 8th Street.
Previous city efforts
In the past year, Kansas City has invested $8.5 million in city funds and in COVID-19 relief funding into addressing homelessness and housing insecurity in light of the pandemic, which has left many more people facing financial uncertainty. Here is the full list of initiatives by the city in the past year.
- Creation of the Houseless Task Force: The task force, the first of its kind in Kansas City, was established by the City Council in January with the hopes of developing long-term policies and solutions related to homelessness.
- Strategic plan and community needs assessment: The City Council in late August voted to direct City Manager Brian Platt to finish an assessment of the ways taxpayer dollars are currently being spent on service providers. The study is meant to inform a strategic plan — due about six months later — for addressing needs of those experiencing homelessness, including prevention and intervention.
- Tiny home village: In the plan’s first phase, the city hopes to provide at least 140 beds across 65 “pallet homes.” The transitional housing village would include on-site social services, health care and caseworkers available at any time of the day.
- The Land Bank of KCMO: The land bank is selling 111 vacant and abandoned homes for $1. These buildings are being sold to organizations that will then renovate them and rent living spaces out to people either in the lowest income brackets or who are experiencing houselessness.
- More housing: The city is working with private developers to create more affordable units in new developments. The city also created and allocated $12.5 million to an affordable housing trust fund and a standalone housing department to focus on tenants, the unhoused and affordable housing. Maggie Green, media relations manager for the city, said the city is also hoping to repurpose unused facilities, such as hotels, into housing for those who are unsheltered.
- Vision for Housing Plan: The city asked for community feedback on the plan to create 10,000 new affordable housing units by 2027.
The Star’s Robert A. Cronkleton contributed.
This story was originally published December 20, 2021 at 8:27 AM.
