Homelessness in Kansas City nears ‘crisis levels.’ A new tent camp is the latest test
The collection of tents on the edge of a residential neighborhood near Van Brunt Boulevard and East 31st Street is not visible from the main road, but city officials have known that it’s there, on city property, for weeks now.
Unlike the quick action taken when encampments were erected in more visible areas, city officials have not forced these folks to move. But the homeless people living there say the city hasn’t offered them any help, either.
Stacks of old tires and trash surround the encampment, literally feet from the Lotus Care House, the former hotel converted to a city-partnered, nonprofit housing facility for the homeless.
The encampment started with one or two people huddled in a tent against cold February weather. Lotus workers were able to provide emergency, temporary space in the care house for those people, who were suffering from frostbite, said Alfredo Palaco, executive director of the nonprofit.
But now Lotus Care House — a former Days Inn with 34 rooms — is full and has a long waiting list. Lotus, which works with a coordinated network of housing providers and other service agencies, has found permanent residences for several of their clients.
The small lot on the edge of the neighborhood has been used as an illegal dump site. But where one or two people had put up a tent, there are now a dozen or more.
‘No one should live like this’
Lelo Mula, 21, and Dante Watson, 24, have been there for eight months of the year they’ve been homeless.
People they don’t know often come by and drop off food, water, clothing and other supplies, while others dump trash. The couple said they try to keep the “big rats” and raccoons that roam the camp at night away from their belongings. They cook on a makeshift grill and use propane-fueled heaters to keep warm. But showering is more of a challenge since their portable shower broke.
The camp is unsafe and unhealthy, and “no, we don’t want to be homeless,” Watson said.
“No one should live like this,” said Jamal Collier, a Lotus Care House worker. “But it’s on city property, so there isn’t anything we can do about it.”
Last month, the Kansas City Council adopted a policy for handling homeless encampments. The ordinance, which became effective April 15, requires that encampment dwellers get at least two days’ notice before city workers dismantle the camp. The city then has to arrange for them to store belongings and offer them other services and alternative housing.
Mula said a city worker did stop by to tell them to clean up the area or they would have to move.
But meanwhile, violence and the stench are a problem for the neighborhood.
City officials said they are working on the problem, and that takes time. But neighbors said they think the reason the encampment has been left undisturbed for months is that it’s in a neighborhood where poor Black people live.
Last July when a tent camp popped up in Westport, after the city ended a 90-day hotel housing option for homeless people, business owners complained about trash and loitering, and it took the city only two days to dismantle it.
Moving people from one unsafe place to another helps no one. And clearly, there are no easy solutions to a situation caused by a constellation of issues that the trauma of living on the street only compounds.
But this encampment is a good test case for the new ordinance. Those living there aren’t safe, and need the city’s supposedly more coordinated rescue and assistance efforts. Now would be good.
