By Roxie Hammill, Johnson County Post
Concerns about providing homeless services to “illegal aliens” and people from outside Johnson County dominated discussion at the county commission last Thursday about a proposal to open a shelter at a former La Quinta Inn and Suites hotel in Lenexa.
After two hours of discussion that also included enthusiastic endorsements of the shelter plan from leaders of the interfaith Good Faith Network, commissioners ultimately voted to approve $3.7 million for renovations and operating costs for the hotel.
The commission also OKed the terms of an agreement with Kansas City-based reStart Inc., to run it and eventually take over ownership of the shelter.
Before those votes, the commission voted down amendments to the proposal that would have made U.S. citizenship and Johnson County residency a prerequisite for persons trying to stay at the shelter and use its services.
Months of talks and rising cost estimates
Commissioners have been considering a homeless shelter and services center since December at the hotel, which is still in use, and an adjacent now-vacant Denny’s Restaurant.
The center would provide housing and on-site social services for stays as long as 90 days. It would be the county’s first year-round, non-congregate shelter for those experiencing homelessness.
ReStart has asked local governments to contribute on a per-capita basis a total of $500,000 for operating costs — at least in the shelter’s initial years — and the group is expected to raise the rest of the needed funds privately.
The commission negotiated a $6 million purchase price for the property and has begun earnest payments, with the money coming from federal COVID-19 relief dollars. The deal is not set to close until the end of October.
Overall, the county is putting roughly $10.5 million — all of it in federal funds — into the purchase and renovation of the hotel property.
The vote last week was one step in a series that must happen for the hotel-turned-shelter at 9461 Lenexa Dr. near Interstate 35 to become reality.
Opponents: A “boondoggle” and “not the answer”
The majority of commissioners had already signaled the items would be approved during a work session the previous week. On Thursday, the general public had a chance to weigh in.
Those opposed to the project outnumbered the people speaking for it. A common theme among opponents was their concern that the center would accept applicants who don’t come from Johnson County or the United States.
Mike Perry of Leawood, called the project a “boondoggle.”
“There is no limit on the occupants, meaning illegal aliens could be housed here,” Perry said. “I don’t want to pay for illegals to be here. They shouldn’t be in the country.”
Steve Snitz of Prairie Village agreed, saying “They’re just going to stuff people in there.”
“I want the sheriff’s office to routinely visit that place unannounced and find out what’s going on in there,” he continued.
Other speakers against the proposal said they thought the county tried to rush the idea through and that the agreement would leave the county vulnerable to continuing cost increases and an impact on law enforcement and other services.
Kathy Lysaught of Lenexa said, “We want to help the homeless, but this is not the answer.”
“For this amount of investment, you can buy right now a $795,000, 6.4-acre plot of land in Stilwell, house your homeless services center staff, buy tiny homes and put it on the 6.4 acres,” she said, noting that the acreage allows horses.
“Think of what that might do for someone’s mental health and maybe they might feel like they can find a new life. But not in a concrete jungle bordering I-35,” she said.
Other speakers veered into more conspiratorial territory.
One person wondered aloud whether Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas would send that city’s unhoused population to the Johnson County shelter.
Another suggested billionaire philanthropist George Soros — often the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories — would send “illegals from all over the world … by plane.”
Supporters: “A long time coming”
Five members of the Good Faith Network, an interfaith organization focused on preventing homelessness as one of its key missions, spoke strongly in favor of the project.
The Good Faith Network has supported the project, and its members have often come to commission meetings in the past few years.
Tim Suttle, the chair of the homelessness team for Good Faith Network, said the investment toward a centrally located and staffed center providing services to people who are often overlooked will not end homelessness.
Some 299 people have spent a night at the Project 1020 warming shelter in Lenexa while only 13 found permanent housing, he said.
But the shelter at the Lenexa hotel would be a good start, he continued.
“In my estimation, this is a very good day, and it’s been a long time coming,” he said.
Others said they were hopeful that federal Housing and Urban Development dollars the commission passed up for this project could be used to increase the amount of affordable housing in the county.
Father David Cox, the director of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Mission, said the shelter “will enable us to transform lives in ways we haven’t been able to before.”
Two amendments related to residency rejected
During commission discussion, Commissioner Charlotte O’Hara — who has opposed the project idea from its beginnings — said the county should have to start over with its search for an operator since the original request for proposals was for an operator that would be self-funded.
ReStart has asked local governments for some operating funds as it starts up.
Commissioner Becky Fast said the county missed an opportunity to find national groups that could run the shelter without additional funding.
Fast also worried that rental and utility assistance programs that help keep people from being evicted would suffer as money goes into the shelter for operating expenses.
Discussion of non-residents possibly living at the shelter continued with two amendments offered by O’Hara.
The first would have required that reStart accept only applicants who are Johnson County residents. Chairman Kelly pointed out that showing a permanent residence in the county would be difficult for a homeless person. That amendment failed 5-2, with O’Hara and Commissioner Michael Ashcraft voting in favor.
O’Hara asked for a second amendment that would require shelter clients to be U.S. citizens. Kelly and Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick said that federal law prohibits providers of other emergency services such as fire and ambulance from asking about citizenship.
Hanzlick said turning residents away or not providing shelter will result in more cost to taxpayers anyway, as people without homes end up going to emergency rooms or jail.
Kelly drew guffaws from onlookers when he said, “It’s disappointing to me how this has evolved into xenophobia and nationalism,” he said, eliciting groans from onlookers, with at least one person heard saying “Shut up.”
“I would hope we would be willing to serve all in our community,” Kelly said.
Ashcraft rejoined that the county’s resources are finite.
“If for some reason there are individuals who are not U.S. citizens that occupy this limited space, then does that mean people who are permanent residents would be relegated to waiting until non-residents were taken care of?” he asked.
O’Hara related her own family’s history of taking in children from other countries.
“I have been in the trenches dealing with homelessness,” she said.
“I have said this over and over and over that it’s the faith community that should be stepping up,” without asking for public funding, she said, citing City Union Mission as an example.
The citizenship amendment was ultimately defeated 5-2, with only O’Hara and Ashcraft voting in favor.
The main item then passed 5-2, with O’Hara and Ashcraft in dissent.
View the original story here.
