Kansas City Star Questions Proposed Homeless Crackdown

Thanks to some of the most KICK-ASS TKC READERS our blog community reported an upcoming homeless crackdown FIRST. 

Our main takeaway today . . . If the Kansas City Star is asking critical questions about the idea, it must be halfway decent. 

To be fair . . . The Mayor's activist endorsement of MILLIONS worth of taxpayers subsidy for the local homeless population has created an inordinate amount of animosity toward this vulnerable population. 

Meanwhile . . . 

The reality is that very few homeless people are activists and most of them don't have a political agenda. They're desperate people in dangerous circumstances. 

To make matters worse, so many attention starved activists are desperate to advance their profile and look to use any cause to latch onto . . . 

And so . . . Here we are . . . 

KCMO is soon to make a 180 degree tactical change to clean up the local homeless crisis just in time for campaign season.

Accordingly, the newspaper offers only obstacles from the relative safety of JoCo where most of their staffers live sheltered lives far away from urban core reality . . . Check their money line:

The ordinance says that “no person shall put or keep and maintain or occupy any tent, lean-to, tarpaulin or other structure for purposes of habitation or place of living or lodging, either temporarily or otherwise, upon any privately-owned grounds within the city.” As tents aren’t allowed on any public property, either, where are people with nowhere to go supposed to sleep? Another proposed ordinance would make it “unlawful for any person, either alone or in concert with another or others, to stand or otherwise position themselves in any public place in a way that obstructs or impedes street traffic.” City Manager Brian Platt says both proposals apply only to the homeless population . . .

But as well-intentioned as the city’s plans are, the housing options and services remain too few, and community opposition to some proposed interim solutions, like the pallet homes, remains too strong. We can’t both complain about encampments and then refuse to support alternatives, can we?

Answer . . .

Campaign season is coming up . . . This is just the first of many silly ideas we'll see from city hall.

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Kansas City proposals on tent camps, loitering aren't bad. They also aren't useful

OPINION AND COMMENTARY A proposed Kansas City ordinance requiring the city to give adequate notice to people living in tent encampments before they are disassembled is intended to "extend dignity to the homeless," according to city officials. Giving notice before tearing down tents is better than giving no notice.