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Kansas Citians are sleeping outside in freezing weather. In their own words, here’s why

A man in a gray parka, red had and several hoods sips a white paper cup with his right, gloved hand.
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
David Tinoco, 42, would like to stay in a shelter when it is very cold outside. But without transportation, he often has to walk across town to a shelter, arriving after it is full.

Shelters that are at capacity have been adding beds to accommodate overflow guests as freezing temperatures remain throughout the metro. But for many, restrictions like pets, a lack of transportation or mental illness deny them access to those beds.

A sprawling warehouse at 1516 Prospect Ave., in Kansas City, Missouri, is brimming with bins of donated clothes, pallets of non-perishable foods and row after row of cardboard boxes labeled with magic marker: candles, gloves, underwear, men’s pants. Any kind of supply one might need to live on the street.

There is also an industrial kitchen, where volunteers for Uplift Organization, Inc., a 35-year-old group that serves people experiencing homelessness, make hot meals for people living outside.

On a recent, frigid Wednesday night, 15 volunteers — men with gray beards along with a handful of lanky teens and their parents — prepare to go out in one of the four Sprinter vans to serve unhoused people at more than 20 designated stops across the metro.

Ross Dessert standing in Uplift's kitchen area waiting for volunteers.
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
Ross Dessert stands in Uplift's kitchen area waiting for volunteers.

“Don’t hold back on items meant to keep you warm,” Ross Dessert, the organization’s CEO, told the group as they gathered in a circle for a pre-departure pep talk. “If someone requests more than one handwarmer you give them as many as they can handle.”

Last year, Uplift served an average of 343 people a night. Dessert said they're already on pace to exceed that average this year. The Department of Housing and Urban Development indicates over 2,500 people were unsheltered in Missouri in 2024.

“There are more homeless people due to the housing market shifting in the last couple of years,” Dessert said. His experience bears that out.

Area shelters and warming centers have been at capacity through this recent spate of winter weather, some even adding cots or mats on the floor to accommodate an overflow of guests.

But many of the hundreds of people in Kansas City who experience homelessness are forced to remain outside, facing restrictions such as pets, a lack of transportation or mental illness that makes life in a crowded facility intolerable.

XXXX and his dog stand in line to receive supplies from Uplift.
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
Jon Thelen, a volunteer from Olathe, serves supplies, including pet food, to an Uplift patron. People with pets are generally prohibited from going to shelters.

'Lots of us out here have pets'

The van’s first stop is under U.S. Highway 71 at 18th Street in Kansas City, Missouri. A dozen people waited as the white van bumped up over the snow-covered curb.

Michael Thomas, who identified himself as a man in his mid-40s, said his life on the street is a temporary setback, but one he is surviving with his two dogs, Little Dude and Rosemarie. They’re his family, he said, even though he knows most shelters don’t allow pets.

“When you choose to have an animal, you can’t all of a sudden choose to not have an animal,” he said, from under the bill of a heavy wool cap and several layers of jackets. “It's for the duration. They endure everything with you, and you have to endure everything with them.”

A wide shot of a man walking down a snowy street holding on to plastic bags and a dog on a leash.
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
An unhoused man and his dog near 18th street just received supplies from Uplift Organization, Inc., and walks back to where he's living outside, across town.

Cole Jaybro, who identified as middle aged, hung back with his medium-sized, light brown dog, wagging a long black tail.

Jaybro sleeps in a makeshift shelter he’s made out of mattresses, plywood, tarps and other found objects, but said when the recent blizzard hit, he would have gone to a shelter in a minute.

“A couple nights ago when it was single digits, I was tempted to go to a shelter, but I couldn’t because I have a dog and they don't have warming centers for dogs,” Jaybro said. “Lots of us out here, we keep dogs for safety or companionship.”

Uplift distributes dozens of bags of dog and cat food on their routes. Also, they partner with the Pet Resource Center of Kansas City, which travels behind some of the vans, carrying additional pet food and offering veterinary services for the animals.

Arriving after shelters are full

David Tinoco was sitting under the bridge at Interstate 35 and 27th Street in Kansas City, Missouri, when one of the Uplift vans parked beneath the overpass.

Tinoco, 42, approached the portable table in front of the opened van. He wore an oversized, gray parka, several sweatshirts, heavy gloves and a red hat pulled down over his ears.

“Do you have any candles?” Tinoco asked, scanning the shelves of supplies.

“Candles? Sure, how many?” said Jon Thelen, an Uplift volunteer from Olathe, Kansas. “Do you also need matches?” he asked.

“Yes, I do,” Tinoco said softly, holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate handed to him by another volunteer. “What about underwear? Any underwear?”

Tinoco walked back to his spot off the highway carrying three plastic bags filled with candles and matches, a blanket, some boxer shorts, warm pants, a jug of water, hand warmers, and a piping hot, carry-out box of pasta and meat sauce, mashed potatoes and green beans.

David Tinoco eating a warm meal under I-35 highway bridge.
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
David Tinoco eating a warm meal at the corner of 27th Street and Interstate 35.

“Haven’t had anything to eat since 11 o'clock last night,” he said. “It’s hard to know where to go where you can find some food.”

Tinoco typically stays here, under one of the bridges, on the west side of downtown Kansas City, Missouri. He says sometimes people give him a little bit of money, a blanket or something to eat as they drive by.

During the recent blizzard, he tried to get into one of the shelters. But the buses weren’t running regularly, and by the time he’d walked across town, there weren’t any more spaces available.

Tinoco said without transportation, he often will carry his stuff several miles on foot, only to find there isn’t any more room in a shelter when he arrives.

“I’ll try, but sometimes it’s kind of far,” he said. "I often don’t know where the closest ones are. Even then, the closest ones are often way out there,” he said, making a sweeping motion with the plastic fork before taking a bite of mashed potatoes.

Tinoco said he’s also had the experience of getting to a shelter that does have space, then being turned away because he didn’t have any identification.

Bearded man in layers of jackets and hoods holding white cup of coffee and smiling
Laura Ziegler
/
KCUR
Randall Lee Heese said he'd been on the street for about 11 years. It is hard for him to stay overnight in the shelter without becoming agitated and anxious, even though he'd like to.

Getting there isn’t the problem, it's staying

Randall Lee Heese, 47, said he’d “lost his way” 11 years ago and has been living on the streets ever since.

Affable, with a warm face, he rolled out his story of mental health struggles in a series of rhyming verse, without inhibition.

“I’m kind of just a depressed, anxiety-filled, crossed-out-of-the- way Tourette's, trying to value that and just see if I have a name value. I need help or I need help to be helped,” he said in rapid dialogue.

Heese explained he’d been diagnosed with anxiety disorder and Tourette's Syndrome, but does not take any medicine. He works to control his symptoms through his speaking and writing. They help him control what he calls his “outbursts.”

“I have a very hard time sitting around in one place and just standing in that same place for more than maybe 80 minutes at a time,” Heese said. “Getting into a shelter is no problem but staying a full night is.”

To avoid being a disturbance to others, he typically leaves in the middle of the night.

Band-aid or solution

Ross Dessert said he is often asked if Uplift has an impact on Kansas City’s houseless population.

He acknowledged what they do doesn’t address the systemic challenges that perpetuate much of the city’s homelessness problem.

“Homelessness is a housing problem,” he said. “The biggest problem is a lack of affordable housing.”

Dessert said while the city tries to find its way out of this problem, Uplift Organization, Inc. will continue to spread a safety net underneath those living on the streets, protecting them until they have access to other services, or, at least, keeping them alive.

“Then other organizations can come in with the mental health, with the jobs, with the housing, with the transportation, with the medical care. All the stuff that we can't do, they can do.”

I was raised on the East Side of Kansas City and feel a strong affinity to communities there. As KCUR's Solutions reporter, I'll be spending time in underserved communities across the metro, exploring how they are responding to their challenges. I will look for evidence to explain why certain responses succeed while others fail, and what we can learn from those outcomes. This might mean sharing successes here or looking into how problems like those in our communities have been successfully addressed elsewhere. Having spent a majority of my life in Kansas City, I want to provide the people I've called friends and family with possible answers to their questions and speak up for those who are not in a position to speak for themselves.
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