Wyandotte County residents rally, calling new homelessness ordinance ‘inhumane’

Five activists braved the chilling wind in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, Wednesday morning to protest a new ordinance in Wyandotte County that could result in fines or even jail time for people sleeping under bridges and local overpasses.

“It’s inhumane,” said Carrington Allen, founder of AIM Ministries, a nonprofit that serves the KC metro. “It feels like a punishment to those who are already suffering, who are already given the short end of the stick in life... We need to have a more restorative approach than one that takes down and tears down.”

The Unified Government Board of Commissioners approved the ordinance last week in a 6-2 vote, which bans people, including those experiencing homelessness, from “unsafe” camping on public and private properties in the county. Commissioners Melissa Bynum, District 1 at-large, and Andrew Davis, District 8, dissented.

Those who are caught living near bus shelters or in privately-owned woods after a first offense could be required to complete 40 hours of community service and pay hundreds in fines, or spend up to a month in jail.

Those who gathered to protest against the ordinance Wednesday stressed the need for a different approach to address homelessness in Wyandotte County. Allen urged commissioners to have compassion and think about how they would react if one of their family members would be impacted by the ordinance.

“What would happen if this was your aunt, your uncle, your brother, your dad, your cousin,” she said. “Would you be moving with compassion then? If this was your children, if this was you, would you want somebody to help you and to love you and to help get you back on your feet?”

During a board meeting in October, numerous local advocates and residents told commissioners that making camping a misdemeanor would directly harm the county’s homeless population, according to previous reporting. They instead urged the local government to expand services for people experiencing homelessness, like housing assistance and mental health services, instead of policing them.

The ordinance that passed removed the misdemeanor language but kept punitive measures like community service, fines and jail time in place for violations.

“If they’re looking for resolutions, if they’re looking for things that would help the issue and the problem, they can look to organizations like us for these plans and solutions,” Allen said.

Officials previously said the rule is not a cure-all solution, but rather one of many ways the county needs to begin addressing homelessness, according to previous reporting.

“My suggestion is that the commissioners give us a seat at the table. They can’t do it alone,” said Fannie Hill, with War Cry Community Ministry. “Mayor Tyrone was speaking in the last meeting, and he said it’s a community problem. This is not a Unified Government problem, not a commissioner problem.”

Another activist at the rally named Keri Kahle, regional director at Minds Matter, which works to help those who experience a traumatic brain injury, believes there should be multiple plans to address the homelessness issue in Wyandotte.

“We need to come together as a community to formulate a short-term and long-term plan to ensure that all people have shelter,” she said.

Allen stressed that Wyandotte is already a small county that faces many disadvantages, but that if those in power with access to funding and those with influence come together, they can make a big difference.

“If we use all of those things to come together and create systems that progress, this city could be phenomenal,” she said. “But yet people have this power, people have this access. People have this opportunity and they don’t use it for the betterment or the greater good. We need you to use it for the greater good.”

Wyandotte County is still trying to secure a long-awaited, year-round shelter for residents experiencing homelessness. Because of this, many rely on warming and cooling centers and nonprofits to make it through the harshest days.

The government has promised a replacement to the outgoing Willa Gill Services Center, the county’s designated warming shelter, that will soon permanently close, but a formal location hasn’t been decided on, and government officials say that’s because any time they scope out a spot, neighbors in the area push back.

Previous reporting from the Star’s Sofi Zeman was used in this piece.

This story was originally published November 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM.