OLATHE, Kan. — The Johnson County Board of County Commissioners terminated a purchase agreement for a hotel near West 95th Street and Interstate 35, which it hoped to convert into a year-round shelter for residents experiencing homelessness.
It also terminated an assignment agreement with reStart, which was in line to manage the facility.
In a separate motion, the county commission directed staff to continue searching for projects to spend nearly $10 million in federal funding from the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, or SLFRF, with an emphasis on addressing countywide housing needs.
"In Johnson County — one of the most-affluent counties in the country — we have the resources," Tim Suttle, the pastor at Redemption Church, said. "We could end homelessness or reach what’s called functional zero — so the number of people falling in is the same as the number of people we’re helping out over a period of time (and) homelessness is rare, brief and non-recurring. We can reach that goal, and we should."
It just won’t happen by converting the La Quinta into a space for a year-round shelter and affordable transitional housing after the Lenexa City Council denied a special-use permit Tuesday for the proposed facility.
Johnson County Commission Chairman Mike Kelly has set 2029 as the target for the county to reach functional zero, but advocates say there are massive holes in the current system.
"We don’t have a year-round shelter for adults at all," Rita Carr, the director of community planning for United Community Services of Johnson County, said. "Right now, in this moment, if someone loses housing here, we are referring to shelters in other communities."
Carr has worked in the homelessness sector since 2006.
She said the broader issue centers on the need for more affordable and workforce housing, so people aren’t one financial emergency from losing a roof over their head.
"Affordable housing in this community is exceedingly hard to find, especially if you're on a limited income (or) fixed income," she said. "There are very few places that are willing to take vouchers, so it’s very hard to find and that ends up making it so that people are stretched well beyond their means for their housing."
Creating a housing trust fund to encourage and subsidize affordable-housing projects, passing source-of-income protections to make better use of rental assistance programs, working with the Kansas legislature to create a path to affordable-housing carve-outs in development agreements, and adjusting zoning where appropriate to create new housing options are among other possible solutions.
Subtle hopes those and other creative options are on the table.
"A shelter would have helped, there’s no doubt about it, but what we need now, if our goal is functional zero, then what we need now is a comprehensive plan for how we can reach functional zero in Johnson County," he said. "We think we can get it done and now there’s $10 million that was earmarked for the shelter. That money could go a long way toward housing some of our most-vulnerable neighbors."
County officials must allocate the nearly $10 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan before the end of the year or lose it.
Commissioner Michael Ashcraft reminded his colleagues that redirecting that money to the Nelson Wastewater Facility Improvement Project, a $610-million project to replace an outdated facility constructed in the 1940s, remains a fail-safe option.
Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara, who didn’t support the shelter in Lenexa, made a motion to remove language regarding the housing emphasis, but it failed. She voted to terminate the purchase agreement but cast the lone dissenting vote on the second issue.
Commissioner Jeff Meyers said he "accepts" Lenexa’s decision, but he said there’s still a need for solutions — to provide services for people experiencing homelessness and create more affordable housing.
Tapping into his history as a longtime former Olathe East football coach, Meyers said "when you get knocked down, you don’t stay down."
Kelly agreed: “It’s going to be easy to criticize. At the end of the day, it’s always going to take some courage to be able to move things forward — and a focus and a willingness on action. That’s where I’m going to be focused.”
He also used a football analogy, comparing the failed Lenexa shelter to the 2018 AFC Championship Game when the Kansas City Chiefs lost to the New England Patriots in overtime after Dee Ford lined up offside, negating a potential game-clinching interception.
"That was a really disheartening day," Kelly said. But he added, coming up short "when we were this close to finally going yo a Super Bowl ... wasn’t a complete waste," because it set the stage for a dynasty.
"You built the foundation that could lead to something good," Kelly said, "and I think that’s what we’ve done here, so I want to thank all of our partners for doing that and I look forward to what we can do ahead."
After the Lenexa Planning Commission unanimously recommended again granting a special-use permit, the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners sent a letter to the Lenexa City Council last week, urging the city council to approve the project.
Thursday’s meeting started with 25 minutes of public comments for and against the project, though its fate already had been sealed two days earlier.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
