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Due to the extreme cold, Kansas City, Missouri, activated its emergency cold weather plan. Ten shelters across the city will add more capacity to their existing space. Other shelters and warming centers around the region will open to keep people warm.
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Some Kansas Citians will sleep out in the bitter freezing wind tonight. They were out there last night, too. Finding a warm bed isn’t necessarily the problem. They know how to survive in the worst of the Kansas City winter, and they don’t like homeless shelters.
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In Wichita, 42 people died in 2023 while experiencing or transitioning out of homelessness. For almost two decades, a local community group has held a memorial service on the winter solstice as a stark reminder of the life-or-death weather to come.
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The holiday break can be difficult for families who rely on schools to provide meals, shelter and other resources to their kids. Schools around the Kansas City area started planning early so kids would be taken care of.
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The founder of Operation 1020 says the 30 beds the shelter is currently allowed by the city of Lenexa are simply not enough to meet the growing demand they are facing each day. She hopes a permanent shelter will eventually become a reality.
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A wide-ranging bill passed by the Missouri General Assembly last year banning sleeping on public land was struck down on Tuesday by the Missouri Supreme Court. Critics of the bill feared it essentially criminalized homelessness.
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The Pinnacle Prize, established by philanthropist Kenneth and Ann Baum, is awarded each year to two Kansas Citians 40 years and younger who have shown a commitment to improving the lives of residents. Josh Henges, the city's first homelessness prevention coordinator, is one of this year's winners.
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Kansas City, Kansas, currently has no permanent emergency shelter where people can stay for the night and find showers, hot meals and referrals for health care — even as homelessness increases on that side of the metro.
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At the Kansas City Museum, a new exhibit organized by Kansas City nonprofit reStart Inc. shows photos, videos and stories by photographer Randy Bacon that capture the unexpected circumstances that led local residents to homelessness and the resilience that helps some find their way out.
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Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins had a thriving solo and chamber career when Broadway came calling for her to be concertmaster and soloist in the 2015-16 revival of 'Fiddler on the Roof.' Classical KC speaks with Kelly about her time as the fiddler and her nonprofit, "Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul," which organizes classical music performances in homeless shelters around the world.
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The city council approved $1.3 million to increase capacity and staffing at 10 local shelters.
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A law passed by the Missouri General Assembly last year made sleeping on state-owned land a Class C misdemeanor. The legislation was modeled off a template by a conservative think tank, but housing advocates say it criminalizes homelessness and was improperly tacked onto an unrelated bill.