Helping the Homeless: Organizations Over Run Due to Severe Weather

Due to the severe winter weather in the Kansas City, metro. area, not-for-profit organizations who support the homeless community, are not able to provide for or reach as many people as needed.

The severe weather started in January with a low of -11 degrees fahrenheit on Jan. 1, and most recently reached a low of two degrees on March 3. In between, there have been power outages, 7 inches of snow and lows of below zero degrees, according to the Kansas City Star.

ReStart homeless shelter, located in downtown Kansas City, Mo., is not able to accommodate all those requiring bed space and shelter according to ReStart employee Tommie Brown.

“I would definitely say we have more people coming in inquiring, trying to come in to seek emergency shelter,” Brown said. “It’s always an issue. We always have to turn away people because we don’t have beds available. There definitely is more demand for bed spaces this time of year.”

Brown attributes this to the fact that those who usually would stay out in tents are forced to seek indoor shelter due to temperatures dipping below zero on some days.

Seniors Hannah Phillips and Riley Kimmel, two SHARE chairs and volunteers for the ReStart project, can understand the stress ReStart is currently under due to their experiences last year.

“They would tell us stories from last year about turning [the] conference room that we would interview in [into bed spaces],” Kimmel said. “They would put beds anywhere they could be.”

But ReStart is not the only place working to help out the homeless community in these colder months. Both Phillips and Kimmel have been going out on UpLift trucks, designed to deliver basic necessities such as food and clothing to the homeless in the KC area. One of the first items on their website is a list of items labeled “Urgent Winter Needs.”

However, at Kansas City Community Kitchen, people’s ability to get to the meals has been the issue, according to Senior Programs Director Christina Esteban. This kitchen, which provides hot meals for anyone in need, only served 200 hot lunches instead of their typical 400 on Wednesday, Feb 27, when streets were unusually icy. This, according to Esteban, was due to the fact that many of their clients could not get there safety.

“If you’re already cold and perhaps your immune system has a lower capacity than someone who is able to have three healthy meals a day, then your chances of becoming ill or having long term chronic illness is definitely at a higher risk,” Esteban said. “Not having access to that one more meal a day or three hours of warmth can definitely affect not only someone’s health and wellness, but also their outlook.”

Esteban also said that the main issue in this weather is not that those without shelter are in severe weather — because they live under extreme conditions constantly — but instead the fact that volunteers are not able to make it into work to provide and serve these lunches. Typically 20 to 24 volunteers come in, but on the last ice day, only one came in. In order to not close, office workers come down to help serve the food line, according to Esteban.

“I wish I could say this has been worse than other winters,” Esteban said. “I think we’ve had more no school days, but when talking about individuals who are already living in the elements — rain, snow, sleet — I don’t know that it’s a whole lot different than just more cold. They don’t have the option of a no school day. They are outside irregardless.”

In order to help out, ReStart created their own Amazon wish list in order to get needed donations such as towels, pillows and clothing. Brown also suggests that people in the community get connected with different homeless agencies, not just ReStart, to figure out what they are in need of. Kimmel believes even donating the littlest things, like a tarp to separate people from the snow, would be of great benefit.

“I just don’t think a lot of people realize it and are worried about their power going out or worrying about what they are going to do on their snow day or when they are going to go sledding,” Kimmel said. “But there are people who are trying to stay alive and keep above the awful weather.”