Let’s find shelter, jobs for KC’s homeless — but not just for the World Cup | Opinion
Earlier this year, The Star reported that while awaiting the arrival of the world for the FIFA World Cup soccer games coming this summer, Kansas City has seen its population of people experiencing homelessness explode.
Many of the people experiencing this misfortune are living on the city’s streets in doorways and under highways. In some cases, these Kansas Citians “raise dangerous encampments in the woods along the railroad and Missouri River,” Star reporter Eric Adler wrote.
You can’t travel through this city without noticing that the number of people sleeping in tents, pushing all their belongings in a metal cart or propped against a wall as a breaker from wind and cold is significant.
So, I’m glad to see some city leaders embracing broad ideas for moving individuals off the streets into shelter, into their own apartment, and maybe even into the workforce.
It should not be something leaders do only for World Cup appearances, but rather because it is right, good, humane and long overdue. The games will come and go, and our homeless population will still be here.
That said, it seems that the games being in Kansas City present a unique catalytic moment to create sustainable housing and employment for this population.
Let’s not dally and miss it — because that would be completely derelict.
City leaders should ask KC2026, the nonprofit overseeing the games locally for FIFA — the sports governing body that organizes the global soccer events — for financial help to increase shelter space. They should also request other efforts to improve the quality of life for people who — for whatever reason — live on our streets. It’s a health and public safety issue.
For years, Kansas City officials have been unsuccessful at slowing the growing homeless situation in the city, although it hasn’t been because no one has tried.
Kansas City, that’s embarrassing. So yes, big efforts should be made to reverse this trend.
And those efforts need to align with the city’s five-year Zero KC strategic plan to end homelessness based on five pillars, including the obvious need for more housing, wraparound services and investment.
Connect service industry to workers
Last month, 6th District Councilman Johnathan Duncan and 6th District Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw teamed up on an ordinance to put $1 million toward kick-starting a public-private housing strategy that would provide immediate rent assistance to people at risk of homelessness. It would also to trigger investment toward raising $10 million in public and private funding to house 600 people in its first year.
Even those supporting the initiative called it ambitious. It is, but since previous efforts have not worked well, I’m thinking that ambition is exactly what we need.
This week, Parks-Shaw proposed that Kansas City task City Manager Mario Vasquez and his team with designing a plan to connect the service industry — hotels and restaurants — to potential workers from among the estimated 2,000 to 4,000 individuals and families who make up the city’s homeless population.
Hundreds of long-term hospitality jobs are available in restaurants and hotels in and around Kansas City, right now, Parks-Shaw said. The industry needs more workers.
A hospitality industry job fair is planned and open to the public from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. on April 22 at Hy-Vee Arena, 1800 Genessee St., Kansas City.
“Yes, we have opportunities,” said Andrea O’Hara, executive director of the Hotel and Lodging Association of Greater Kansas City. “Yes, we are open to employing people if we can remove the barriers to them getting a job.”
She said all applicants are required to pass a background check, a drug test and have transportation to work. Unfortunately, the latter raises yet another problem for some, since the city’s transportation agency recently warned it may cut a third of its routes because of a lack of funding.
The overall hope, Parks-Shaw said, is to get a city plan that coordinates with outreach workers and nonprofit groups assisting the unhoused, to identify potential workers and then use city administrative know-how to help those who need assistance access the appropriate documents necessary for employment, such as a license and birth certificate.
The resolution gives the city manager’s office 30 days to bring a plan before the City Council for approval. That’s not a lot of time, but if we’re only counting work days, a plan could be in place a few days before the scheduled job fair. I’m not sure that leaves time to help people who are homeless and looking for work.
It’s ambitious, but it’s worth a try — and the council should get started. It sounds like it could be life-changing for people.
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 5:02 AM.
