Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus, 705 Virginia Ave., is open nightly through March 1, regardless of temperature. It has 130 beds for men (Mili Mansaray/The Beacon).
For Kansas City residents living on the streets, the prospect of escaping freezing temperatures hinges on the availability of shelter.
When temperatures drop to 32 degrees, the human body is at risk of hypothermia. Without proper protection, frostbite can occur in 30 minutes if the air temperature drops below 5 degrees and in as little as 15 minutes if the wind chill approaches 25 degrees below zero.
On December 1, cold weather shelters opened hundreds of beds. But that falls short of the estimated need for shelter for at least 2,215 homeless people in the Kansas City area.
According to the annual homeless survey, there were a total of 1,986 homeless people in the region last year. The number of unsheltered people in Jackson County increased from 669 in 2023 to 724 in 2024. Wyandotte County saw an increase from 122 unsheltered people in 2023 to 152 in 2024.
“We could use all 500 beds just for single adult chronically homeless men,” said Josh Henges, homeless prevention coordinator in Kansas City.
Henges said the homeless population is diverse, with different needs across different demographics. For example, he said, homeless youth, women and older or sick people are less likely to stay in predominantly male shelters.
As a result, the cold weather strategy focuses on providing a variety of shelter options.
“The number of beds is less important than the type of beds they are,” he said.
Four hundred beds are available this year under the cold weather shelter plan, with an additional 100 beds available on nights when temperatures drop to zero degrees or below.
Cold weather shelters will be available until March 1, Henges said. Every day at 8 a.m. the number of available beds is determined based on the forecast for that evening.
The goal of the extreme weather plan is to be repeatable and streamline coordination among service providers. It’s part of Zero KC, the city’s plan to end homelessness. It will cost Kansas City at least $1.5 million to get the cold weather strategy up and running, according to a spokesperson for Unhoused Solutions’ city office. That’s a slight increase from the $1.3 million spent on cold-weather homeless shelters last year.
Last winter, the strategy created space for 450 people to escape the cold. That has increased to 500 beds in 2024.
There will be five shelters open every night, regardless of temperature, with 270 beds:
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HopeCity KC5101 E. 24th St., has 55 beds for women. It also serves as an access point to referral-only shelters.
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True Light Family Resource Center712 E. 31st St., has 25 beds for women, including people who identify as women, and mothers with children under 16. These beds are for referrals only.
Two shelters are only open when it is 32 degrees or lower, or when the wind chill is 25 degrees or lower. Both sites are for referral purposes only.
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The City Union Mission men’s shelter, 1108 E. 10th St., will reserve 20 additional beds for cold weather. Guests are not required to participate in shelter programming to access these beds.
A turning point, at 1900 NE Englewood Road in Gladstone, will add 50 beds for all genders when temperatures reach 25 degrees or lower, with a wind chill of 15 degrees or lower. That site is for referral purposes only.
There are plans for a cold weather shelter in Wyandotte County, but that won’t open for several weeks, said Rob Santel, program director at Cross-Lines Community Outreach.
In the meantime, Project 1020, at 9400 Pflumm Road in Lenexa, is open daily from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. through March 31.
Providers across the metro will work together to add up to 100 beds when temperatures reach zero degrees and zero degrees wind chill.
This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.