As homelessness rises and temperatures dip, KC offers hundreds of beds for cold-weather plan

For Kansas City residents living on the street, the prospect of escaping subfreezing temperatures hinges on the availability of a shelter bed.

When temperatures drop to 32 degrees, the human body is at risk of hypothermia. Frostbite can set in within 30 minutes without proper protection when air temperatures fall below 5 degrees and in just 15 minutes when the windchill approaches 25 degrees below zero.

Cold-weather shelters opened hundreds of beds on Dec. 1. But that falls short of the estimated need for shelter for at least 2,215 homeless people across the Kansas City area.

Last year, there were a total of 1,986 homeless people in the region, according to the annual homeless survey. The number of unsheltered people in Jackson County rose from 669 in 2023 to 724 in 2024. Wyandotte County saw a rise from 122 unsheltered people in 2023 to 152 in 2024.

“We could use up all 500 beds just on single adult chronically homeless men,” said Josh Henges, Kansas City’s homeless prevention coordinator.

Henges said the homeless population is diverse with distinct 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 that they are,” he said.

Four hundred beds are available under this year’s cold-weather shelter plan, with an additional 100 beds available on nights when temperatures drop to zero degrees or below.

Cold-weather shelter will be available until March 1, Henges said. Each day, the number of available beds is determined by 8 a.m. based on the forecast for that evening.

The goal of the extreme-weather plan is to be repeatable and streamline the coordination among service providers. It is part of Zero KC, the city’s plan to end homelessness. It costs Kansas City at least $1.5 million to get the cold-weather strategy up and running, according to a city Office of Unhoused Solutions spokesperson. That’s a slight increase from the $1.3 million spent last year on cold-weather homeless shelters.

Last winter, the strategy created space for 450 people to escape the cold. That has increased to 500 beds in 2024.

Five shelters will be open every night regardless of temperature, providing 270 beds:

• Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus, 705 Virginia Ave., has 130 beds for men, including people who identify as male. It also serves as an access point to referral-only shelters.
• HopeCity KC, 5101 E. 24th St., has 55 beds for women. It also serves as an access point to referral-only shelters.
• Unity Southeast in Kansas City, 3421 E. Meyer Blvd., has 40 all-gender beds.
• True Light Family Resource Center, 712 E. 31st St., has 25 beds for women, including people who identify as women, and mothers with children under the age of 16. These beds are referral-only.
• The Heartland Center for Behavioral Change, 1730 Prospect Ave., has 20 all-gender beds. These beds are referral-only.

Two shelters will be open only when it is 32 degrees and below, or with a windchill of 25 degrees or lower. Both sites are referral-only.

• The Shelter KC Men’s Center, 1520 Cherry St., will add an extra 20 beds for cold weather.
• The City Union Mission Men’s Shelter, 1108 E. 10th St., will set aside an extra 20 beds for cold weather. Guests won’t be required to participate in shelter programming to access these beds.

A Turning Point, at 1900 N.E. Englewood Road in Gladstone, will add 50 all-gender beds when temperatures reach 25 degrees and below, with a windchill of 15 degrees or lower. That site is referral-only.

A cold-weather shelter is being planned for Wyandotte County but it won’t open for several weeks, said Rob Santel, director of programs at Cross-Lines Community Outreach.

In the meantime, Project 1020, at 9400 Pflumm Road in Lenexa, operates daily from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. through March 31.

Service providers across the metro will coordinate to add up to 100 beds if temperatures reach zero degrees and zero degrees windchill.

This article first appeared on Beacon: Kansas City and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.