Kansas City homeless shelter to operate warming bus into the night during winter storm
Update: As of Wednesday morning the shelter will only be running the bus into the evening from Thursday through Friday
After finding a woman clinging to the frozen pavement outside Hope Faith day shelter following the last winter storm, Executive Director Doug Langner leapt into action in hopes of preventing it from happening again.
The shelter will operate a warming bus late into the evening, for the first time, as another bout of ice and snow threaten to hit the metro late Wednesday into Thursday.
Typically, the Hope Faith warming bus drives between shelters from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day. But, from Wednesday through Thursday, the bus will run until 8 p.m., making stops at homeless camps around the downtown area in order to reach out to those who may not have made it to a shelter.
Case managers at Hope Faith will work to connect people without another place to go by closing hours to another shelter with available beds.
Kansas City Area Transportation Authority has agreed to fund the bus driver’s salary to keep the bus running.
“They really stepped up to help us fill this void,” Langner said.
A spokeswoman for the KCATA, Petrina Parker, declined to comment on the funding agreement with the shelter, but said the transit authority does have a partnership with Hope Faith to support their services.
KCATA also provides warming buses at transit centers throughout the city.
Langner said he hopes the bus will help the shelter make sure they are meeting people’s needs during the storm.
“Just like what we encountered last time, when you hit these extreme temperatures, the most vulnerable people are being hit the hardest,” Langner said.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
