KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Officials shared plans Wednesday night for a proposed Johnson County homeless shelter with another meeting set for Thursday night from 5:30-7 at the Monticello Library in Shawnee.
KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree shared the news about Lenexa city staff’s plans to recommend the city's planning commission deny the special use permit for the proposed La Quinta Inn location near West 95th Street and Interstate 35.
The shelter would be the first in Johnson County for single adults.
The county currently has a cold weather shelter called Project 1020 and a family shelter through the Salvation Army.
The Lenexa Planning Commission meets August 26 to review the proposal.
Johnson County Commission members already planned to host two public meetings to share more information about the project.
One of those meetings happened Wednesday in Olathe.
About 60 Johnson County residents heard presentations from the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners, the United Community Services of Johnson County, the Johnson County Mental Health Center and reStart Inc., which is the group selected to operate the homeless center.
“I was very pleased to hear that we’re getting a homeless shelter in Johnson County because I think it’s gratefully needed,” said Greta O’Brien, a community member who attended the meeting. “I was really disturbed by the negative and the fiction you see on social media.”
Offcials said misinformation was something they wanted to specifically deal with throughout the process.
“I’m hopeful that we can really present to the planning commission and to the council to mitigate any concerns that there are," said reStart Inc. CEO, Stephanie Boyer. "We’re hearing right now that one of those concerns is potential impact to neighborhoods or other businesses, and an increase in law enforcement need and we’ve got lots of data to say that that’s not true."
Some of that data gathered by the organization revealed homeless people are 12 times more likely to be victims of crime instead of perpetrators.
"Living outside is dangerous, it's mostly dangerous to the person living outside," Boyer said. "We see folks be the victim of many crimes, not that they're committing crimes, and we hear that through their stories."
Boyer's presentation included information on what reStart does, as well as the intended plans for the homeless services center.
Based on the information she shared, the La Quinta Inn would be re-purposed for two uses. The first would be “The Lodge” for primary use with 50 individual, non-congregate rooms. This means people who stay there would have their own private bathroom.
Each resident would have a 30 to 90-day window to stay, and if people needed more time, then the accessory use building would be an option.
“The Residences” would be 25 studios apartments intended for transitional living that would consist of referrals from The Lodge.
Boyer also clarified that people would be selected by referral only, using a coordinated entry system and scheduled intake process that would vet people selected to stay in an effort to address security concerns.
According to data from United Community Services of Johnson County, over 85% of households counted in its Point in Time (PIT) project were single adults.
The PIT count is an annual survey of homeless people taken on a single night in the last 10 days of January in the United States that local agencies, or Continuums of Care, conduct on behalf of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Johnson County’s survey, taken on January 24, counted 250 people experiencing homelessness.
“The image we have of homelessness is someone standing on a street corner with a sign,” said Lynn Michaelson, a Lenexa resident who served at the Project 1020 cold weather shelter in Johnson County. “And that’s not by and large what homelessness is.”
Other concerns about the homeless services center were about the nature of a low-barrier shelter that would not require people who stay to take a sobriety test. That concern is something Johnson County Commission member Charlotte O’Hara said is why she’s not in favor of the project.
O’Hara attended the meeting and was part of a smaller group of opposition.
She says she has questions about the nature of the funding, as well as the decision to have reStart operate the shelter.
“There are so many questions left to be answered,” O’Hara said.
Mike Kelly, the chairman of the Johnson County Board of County Commissioners, said that was the point of Wednesday’s meeting.
“I think when we can have more dialogue together face-to-face, we’re going to get a better solution at the end of the day,” Kelly said. “In a world that’s so divided, being able to come together and talk about data and facts, it goes a long way.”
He and Boyer say they’re still waiting to learn more information about Lenexa city staff's denial recommendation before jumping to conclusions.
"We’re gonna really try to rally the community to come behind and support and come out and say, ‘Yes, we need some kind of intervention, we have to do something.' "Not doing anything is not an option," Boyer said.
Lenexa officials plan to release a report Thursday with information about their proposal.
Both sides say they’re not deserting the current plan yet.
“I’ve always believed in the adage of ‘Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,’ and I really do believe that a lot of good can come from this project," Kelly said.
The clock is ticking on the amount of time the county has to use these one-time funds. County investment for the project originates from federal COVID-19 relief dollars, with a $10.55 million total cost for the building.
Other costs include:
- $6 million to purchase La Quinta Inn and a restaurant
- $850,000 for due diligence and franchise fees
- $3.7 million for building renovations and capacity building for reStart
There would be a $62,000 annual fee out of the county's general fund for five years worth of operating costs to fund the center.
Kelly says the $62,000 would be a part of the ongoing county budget.
“It’s highly unlikely this kind of money would be coming forward again to be able to do this, so we’re really going to stay focused on the goal line here,” Boyer said.
The goal line being able to address a persistent need.
“Apathy is a problem, and if you want to say, ‘Not in my backyard,' well there are homeless people and they are family members of people here, you know, and we should do better,” O’Brien said.
The next informational public meeting is August 22 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the Monticello Community Meeting Room at Monticello Library, 22435 W. 66th Street in Shawnee.
Johnson County staff said at the meeting they’re updating the county website’s Frequently Asked Questions section with answers from the meetings once they are complete.
After Lenexa's August 26th Planning Commission meeting, the plan will go before the Lenexa City Council on September 17th.
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KSHB 41 reporter Rachel Henderson covers neighborhoods in Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties. Share your story idea with Rachel.
