As homelessness rises in KC, mysterious sign appears downtown: ‘Do not give to panhandlers’
The unanswered question is who put up the sign?
It has no Kansas City ordinance on it, meaning the city probably isn’t the author.
The Downtown Council of Kansas City didn’t do it, nor did the Westside Community Action Network Center, only a block away.
The Missouri Department of Transportation, which owns the property, said it has nothing to do with it. The city of Kansas City’s press secretary could not be reached.
But there it was on Tuesday: an official-looking blue placard with capital white lettering affixed about 9 feet up a concrete column at the Interstate 35 underpass, where northbound traffic exists onto West Pennway Street leading into the Crossroads.
“For your safety and theirs, do not give to panhandlers. Please contribute to solutions instead,” the sign reads.
Huddled in layers of blankets just beneath that sign — which those who know the neighborhood said appeared no more than a week or so ago — stood Thomas Gonzales, 38, homeless for three years, panhandling on that corner for about a month.
A small fire stirred at his feet. He looked up at the sign and read.
“Please contribute to solutions instead,” he said, then turned away. “I don’t know what the solution would be. But, man, this (panhandling) helps out. Like people may think that you’re using the money for whatever, but I’m like trying to get some money so I can go to Flying J’s and take a shower today.”
Flying J’s is a service center with gas, food and showers.
He said he understood why someone, whoever it was, would put up a sign. “But what’s ‘contributing to the solution?” he asked. “What’s the solution they’re going to do to help us out?”
‘I agree with the message’
If the sign points to anything, others insist, it’s the growing tension in Kansas City over the best methods to serve and help the city’s expanding population of homeless or people living outside. Debate continues among groups, all of which act as advocates.
The Kansas City area has the highest percentage of people experiencing chronic homelessness living outside without shelter of any major U.S. city, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Kansas City does not have a permanent low-barrier shelter, which has been one of the city’s key goals outlined in its plan to reduce homelessness. Such shelters accept people without requiring participation in programs like religious activities or substance use treatment. Most cities the size of Kansas City have one.
The city has had federal grant money set aside for years to pay for a permanent shelter once it approves a plan. In the meantime, it has a temporary winter shelter system that operates in eight locations.
In the broadest terms there are nonprofits, churches and the like that, for decades, have served homeless people by bringing them food and socks, blankets and tents to make surviving on the street more manageable. They say they are building trusting relationships with people that can lead to them accessing more services and, eventually, getting housing.
Meanwhile, there are others, including those who run Kansas City’s own Office of Unhoused Solutions, who insist there is no good way to live outside. That it is dangerous and deadly. The best way to help people without housing, they say, is not to make living outside more comfortable, but to work in coordination to support a “Housing First” model that works to exit individuals from homelessness while getting them the medical, psychological and social services they need.
“I don’t know who did it,” Sean O’Byrne, executive director of the Downtown Council, said of the sign. “But I agree with the message.
“I certainly would encourage people not to give to panhandlers and, instead, to give it to reStart or City Union Mission, or any structured charity.”
O’Byrne noted, “there is extremely rising frustration. The issue is that we, as a society, shouldn’t stand by idly and watch people commit slow suicide in the public right of way. What we want to do is to get them into structured clinical care.”
Kansas City has an ordinance that prohibits threatening or “aggressive” panhandling, as opposed to “passive.” The ordinance also restricts panhandling in certain areas, such at the 18th & Vine district, the Country Club Plaza, Westport, Zona Rosa, the central business district and from motorists. It also prohibits it within five feet of a curb or street.
The Downtown Council has worked closely with the Missouri Department of Transportation to try to help people get out from living under bridges and underpasses.
“And also to not start fires,” O’Byrne said. “We had that incident out there on I-70 where a woman basically incinerated herself. A very well-intentioned charitable group gave her a tank of propane. She incinerated herself, shut down the highway. About $2 million in repairs had to happen, all in the name of trying to help people.”
What’s right to do?
The Downtown Council, along with businesses and homeowners, had worked to move the Morning Glory Ministries breakfast program run by the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in the belief that it was neither good for downtown nor, in the long run, for the approximate 180 homeless and other people who eat there each morning.
The Downtown Council runs the Downtown Community Services Center at Seventh Street and The Paseo Boulevard offering multiple services, including meals, medical help, psychological help and services that can help lead to permanent housing.
“We have doctors, dentists, psychiatrists, housing referrals,” O’Byrne said. “That’s how you impact homelessness. You help get people over to those services.”
A local business owner sued the diocese in Jackson County Court, but in September Circuit Court Judge Kevin D. Harrell denied the motion to shut down the program, insisting that the opposition to the breakfast project had less to do with concern over houselessness and more a case of businesses and residents not wanting a charity breakfast program in their backyards.
Lynn Johnson, the interim chief operating officer of the City Union Mission, which houses an average of 85 men, and slightly larger number of women and children at their shelter each night, notes that the anonymously posted sign doesn’t speak for him.
“I would never tell someone not to give a panhandler some money, or to give them anything,” Johnson said. “Signs like that, they feed into the mixed emotions and sometimes the myths about homelessness — that panhandlers are actually running a scam, they’re running a hustle.
“And I think, really, people are just trying to do their best. If you think about the cold weather, it’s difficult to assume that someone would be out in these freezing temperatures if they didn’t have to. And that’s just me using the reasoning of any person who’s just trying to survive.”
Taylor Brune, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Transportation said the sign has been posted without permission.
“We reached out to our Kansas City District to confirm,” she said. “No, this is not a MoDOT sign, nor did anyone reach out to request permission to place this sign on MoDOT property. We are working to remove it.”
Meanwhile, while Thompson clung to his blankets in the cold, two cars pulled up and rolled down their windows to hand him a few dollars.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
