The Dotte Struggles To Deal With Rapidly Rising Homeless Population

Street level perspective and the numbers don't bode well for a local enclave and resources they'll have to dedicate to more homeless people at their doorsteps.

Here's a breakdown of the situation . . .

For the past two years, HUD has cited the reporting region that includes Wyandotte County as having the nation’s highest percentage of people within the overall homeless population who experience chronic unsheltered homelessness.

That unwelcome distinction speaks to a lack of resources for a vulnerable group of people. Wyandotte County and its largest city, Kansas City, have no year-round overnight emergency shelter. Housing for people with limited incomes is in short supply. Motels quickly become expensive, and crashing with friends or family gets old.

And so people live where they think they won’t be bothered – in the woods, under bridges and overpasses, and in vacant buildings. Some cluster in small groups; many stay by themselves.

“As our population has grown, we’re seeing a lot of camps,” says Kansas City, Kansas Police Sgt. Angela Joyce. “You’ve got people with addictions. You’ve got mental illness. You’ve got a lot of people who’ve just fallen on hard times. It’s such a big problem, and you don’t realize it until you actually deal with it.”

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

How Wyandotte County deals with unsheltered homelessness

An unwelcome distinction For the past two years, HUD has cited the reporting region that includes Wyandotte County as having the nation's highest percentage of people within the overall homeless [...]