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Johnson and Wyandotte county homeless shelters filled over capacity during extreme cold

A sign directs people to the Project 1020 cold weather shelter entrance at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church.
Kylie Graham
/
Johnson County Post
A sign directs people to the Project 1020 cold weather shelter entrance at Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church.

Persistent cold this month has meant more unhoused people in the Kansas City area have needed warm, safe places to spend the night. But neither Johnson or Wyandotte counties have enough beds, and consistently have to turn people away.

Kansas City homeless shelters have seen a persistent need for services, with temperatures dipping close to or below zero several times this month.

But in Johnson and Wyandotte counties, the shelter system isn't as robust as in Kansas City. Only Project 1020 in Johnson County and KCK Cold Weather Shelter in Wyandotte County provide overnight shelter for adults.

These shelters have limited capacity — which means they're often tasked with finding shelter for more people than they can host on-site.

Sometimes that means paying for hotel rooms for the night. Other times, it's calling around to see if another organization can take someone in.

Rob Santel, program director at Cross Lines, oversees operations at KCK Cold Weather Shelter. The space can serve 40 people on nights when the temperature is below 25 degrees. In recent weeks, the shelter has often gone over capacity, and has been forced to turn people away almost every night.

"We try to have those conversations around like where they can go," he told KCUR's Up To Date.

But getting people to other shelters is more difficult.

"We've been able to do some of that on those coldest of nights, especially when that terrible weather was there and the busses weren't running," Santel said. "We had to get extremely creative in how to get people to other different locations."

  • Doug Langner, executive director, Hope Faith
  • Rob Santel, program director, Cross Lines
  • Jim Schmidt, vice president, Project 1020
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