Jay had a choice to make last week: Extend his hospital stay so he could get medical treatment, or go to court for unpaid fines after he was caught sleeping in a public park bathroom. All he had needed was a place to rest.
Jay, a homeless man who asked to go only by his first name to maintain his privacy, skipped medical treatment and went to court.
In much of Johnson County, it’s increasingly hard for people like Jay to find a place to rest. Case in point: In Gardner, sleeping outside can now get you a ticket.
Last month, the Gardner City Council voted 4-1 to approve a new ordinance banning unlawful camping on public property — a definition that includes sleeping in parks, on benches, or even in a car. Councilmember Kelly Johnson cast the lone dissenting vote.
City leaders note that the goal isn’t punishment. Instead, they say, it’s intervention.
“This is a lesser crime violation that gives the court more freedom to address any type of situation,” said Amy Foster, the city’s business services manager. “The overarching goal is to connect individuals with resources that promote stable housing, while maintaining safe and sanitary public spaces.”
But that goal runs into a basic problem: There are few places for people to go.
A solution or a contradiction?
Johnson County still has no year-round homeless shelter.
For much of the year, Project 1020 in Lenexa, the county’s only low-barrier shelter for single adults, is closed during the warmer months. Other options are limited, often restricted to families or tied to waitlists and income requirements.
That leaves some residents cycling between public spaces, temporary arrangements, and run ins with local law enforcement.
“I don’t really see the harm,” Jay told the Post outside Project 1020 last week. “So you don’t want [someone] to throw up a tent in the middle of a busy park, I get that, but, the parks that are bigger, there’s always quiet areas that they could do that and they’re not really hurting anybody.”
Gardner officials say the ordinance was driven in part by repeated complaints about a person sleeping in a park, a situation police say exposed the limits of their existing tools.
“We were trying to find a way to not give them a minimum fine, but be able to compel them to get help,” said Police Chief Pam Waldeck.
But critics argue the ordinance puts an additional burden on a group of people who already have few choices.
“I voted no because the ordinance makes it illegal for people to sleep outside without clearly identifying where they can legally go instead,” Johnson said. “Without that alternative, we’re essentially penalizing people for having nowhere else to be.”
A growing issue with limited capacity
Homelessness in Johnson County, while smaller in scale than in urban areas, has been steadily rising.
A 2025 point-in-time count identified 253 people experiencing homelessness, up from 180 in 2020 and 153 in 2016. More than a quarter were unsheltered.
Advocates say those numbers don’t capture the full picture, especially in months when seasonal shelters are closed.
And they say policies like Gardner’s risk compounding the problem.
“In general, criminalizing homelessness is extremely resource-intensive and expensive for law enforcement, courts, jails, and taxpayers,” said Kristy Baughman of United Community Services of Johnson County. “It does nothing to solve the issue.”
Instead, she said, citations and arrests can make it harder for people to secure housing later.
For Yolanda Lightbourne, the shift is already visible.
A certified nursing assistant for more than 40 years, she moved to Johnson County from Florida two years ago with a job and some savings. But rising housing costs — and strict income requirements — made securing an apartment difficult.
Eventually, she began sleeping in her car.
“When I had my car, I used to park at public places like [gas stations] and stuff like that,” she said outside of Project 1020 last week. “Now, I even went inside a [gas station] and bought something, and then they came out and said … ‘Well, you’ve been here too long.’ They didn’t used to do that last year.”
Her health has since declined, costing her job and limiting her options further.
“Things are changing,” she said, “and you can see it.”
What actually helps?
Experts say the core issue isn’t behavior — it’s housing.
“While some folks experiencing homelessness also struggle with mental health or substance use issues, homelessness is ultimately a housing and affordability issue,” said Tim DeWeese, director of Johnson County Mental Health.
Without local shelter or affordable housing, he said, people are often forced to choose between leaving their support systems or staying and living without permanent housing. Either way, instability deepens.
Advocates like Barb McEver, co-founder of Project 1020, say that’s why ordinances like Gardner’s raise a fundamental question.
“They need a stable place to stay,” she said. “We don’t have that in Johnson County, so I’d like to know what resources they’re connecting them to.”
Even supporters of the ordinance acknowledge the tension.
City Council President Mark Baldwin said he hopes the measure will both address public concerns and help connect people to services.
“Luckily, the city has almost a non-existent homelessness population so the impact won’t be real noticeable to the general population,” Baldwin said. “But, I hope it’s very noticeable, in a positive manner, to those struggling.”
At the same time, he also suggested it may need revisiting.
“… if this ordinance leads to unintended consequences,” he said, “the governing body needs to be ready to re-evaluate.”
For now, those consequences remain uncertain.
Meanwhile, at the center of the debate are a growing number of people without a place to sleep and a shrinking number of places they’re allowed to be.
What does the data say about homelessness in Johnson County?
A January 2025 point-in-time count of the county’s homeless population, conducted by United Community Services of Johnson County, shows 253 people experiencing homelessness. Of those:
- 59.3% had some form of shelter (though Johnson County officials stated that this number is lower when Project 1020 in Lenexa is closed during the warmer months),
- 28.5% were completely unsheltered,
- and 12.3% were in transitional housing.
The same data set shows the steady rise of known homelessness in the county over the past decade. In 2020, the point-in-time count reported 180 homeless people. The 2016 count showed 153 homeless people.
UCS conducted a point-in-time count earlier this year, but has not yet published the results.
What’s in Gardner’s new ordinance?
Gardner’s Municipal Code is regularly updated to incorporate the “Uniform Public Offense Code for Kansas Cities: Edition of 2025.” Several items were included and/or updated in the ordinance that the city council approved last month, covering topics such as criminal littering, horses and unauthorized vehicles on golf courses, controlled substances and more.
The section defined camping and outlined the specifics on where camping is now prohibited under city law:
- “Camp means to use property for living accommodation purposes, such as sleeping activities or making preparations to sleep; or storing personal property; or making any fire, regularly cooking meals, using any tents, or living in a parked vehicle. These activities constitute camping when it reasonably appears, in light of all circumstances, that a person(s) is using such property as a living accommodation.
- “Public Infrastructure means bus shelters, public parks, park trails, park benches, park shelters, bridges, or overpasses.
- “It is unlawful and a public nuisance for any person to camp in the following areas, unless otherwise allowed by Gardner Municipal Code.
- Public infrastructure;
- Within 10 feet of any doorway, loading dock, stairway, or fire escape;
- Within 50 feet of the centerline of any trail or sidewalk within city limits to protect the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of the city.”
Violating the ordinance would be a non-class misdemeanor, which does not carry predetermined fines or penalties. After an officer writes a violation, the municipal court reviews the circumstances and decides penalties, which can range from:
- $0 to $500,
- and 0 to 30 days in jail or the county’s adult residential center.
Offenders may also have the opportunity for diversion, dismissing potential penalties upon completion, Foster said.
Local resources
Johnson County doesn’t have a year-round shelter. In 2024, the Lenexa City Council denied a permit for Restart Inc. to convert a La Quinta hotel into a permanent year-round homeless services center off of Interstate 35 and 95th Street.
Instead, the county has:
- emergency and transitional housing units at the Olathe Salvation Army Family Lodge, which is currently expanding from 14 units to 18 units,
- Interfaith Hospitality Network in Overland Park, which provides housing to families with children through an intake process and waitlist,
- Project 1020, a low-barrier shelter at the Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church in Lenexa, housing up to 50 people per night from Dec. 1 to March 31,
- transitional housing for individuals and families with Hillcrest Ministries in Overland Park,
- and additional non-housing resources, including for Johnson County and the Kansas City area.
