Where Now?: Missouri’s new law illegalizing homeless sleeping in public impacts Kansas City’s homeless community

The Missouri Legislature’s House Bill 1606 went into effect on Jan. 1, banning sleeping on state land, including public parks and under bridges. Perpetrators can now receive a Class C misdemeanor after multiple offenses.

While Kansas hasn’t prohibited sleeping on state property, homeless people who spend the night on public land across state line will face a written warning and then up to $750 in fines or 15 days in jail — an attempt to address the surge in homelessness after the pandemic.

For Kansas City shelters and outreach organizations, the ban means an influx of homeless people to provide temporary housing and resources for. River of Refuge — a local non-profit organization that transitions unsheltered people to permanent housing — had a lengthy waitlist even before the bill, according to Executive Director Pamela Seymour.

“Our waitlist will get longer and longer,” Seymour said. “We did double our capacity in the last few months, but it still doesn’t empty our waitlist. Most of the families that want to work a program at our organization complete an application. It’s usually 9-12 weeks before they would be considered for the program because we don’t have room, even with the [capacity] extension.”

With shelters full and rent high — an average of $1,229 per month in Kansas City, Missouri, according to RentCafe — Seymour has concerns about where homeless people will reside next. Criminalizing sleeping in public spaces may increase the number of people squatting in private homes, breaking into buildings and setting fires to stay warm, she said.

“If you keep shuffling people around, they’re going to go somewhere,” Seymour said. “And it may not be pretty.”

The resulting fines and imprisonment could also damage homeless people’s ability to escape poverty, according to Seymour, setting them back further in debt and with criminal charges on their record.

“It creates more obstacles for homeless people to jump through in order to get to self-sufficiency,” Seymour said. “With the rent as it is in our area, it’s quite a task to find a place to afford when you’re making minimum wage. Landlords are gonna look for backgrounds and see these warrants out.”

Though shelters, organizations and advocates opposed the bill, state legislators said the new law intends to protect unsheltered people in the aftermath of the pandemic. Against claims that it criminalizes homelessness, Missouri Governor Mike Parson emphasized the need to redirect individuals from public spaces to safer environments during the bill signing.

“That’s our main concern,” Missouri Department of Transportation Assistant District Engineer Matt Killion said. “That folks may be putting themselves in harm’s way when they may not realize it, in addition to the conditions that may exist under a bridge with litter and trash.”

Homeless encampments can threaten both city infrastructure and the unsheltered people themselves, according to Killion, who oversees highways in the Kansas City district. When people store flammable materials like clothing or food beneath bridges, a heat source can ignite those items and damage the structure.

It happens often, he said. In 2022, an unsheltered person was killed when propane tanks and their belongings caught fire beneath a bridge in Killion’s district, causing the department to close lanes on the interstate highway to assess and repair the damage. The law could prevent more unsheltered people from endangering themselves, according to Killion.

However, Seymour and other shelter owners question the future of Kansas City’s rising homeless population. Since 2019, the number of unsheltered people in Jackson County, Missouri has increased 193%, according to Zero KC. Not all of them can access a shelter.

“That’s the million dollar question: where are they going to go?” Seymour said. “My theory is that maybe they’re going to be arrested, so they’re going to be a few days in jail. Maybe they’re gonna get sent to an area hospital for a mental evaluation, so that takes them off the street for a couple days at most. Bad news is that no matter what temporary placement they get, it’s temporary.”

To address where the homeless will seek shelter now, the bill includes provisions that require municipalities to create temporary camps instead of affordable, permanent housing. 

In response, the Kansas City Council adjusted their plan for Zero KC — the city’s five-year initiative to end homelessness that involved building temporary shelters — which the council began working on over a year before the law went into effect. 

When the bill was announced, the council modified the plan to still include semi-permanent shelters such as transitional or low-barrier housing, according to fifth district council person and Houseless Taskforce chair Ryana Parks-Shaw. These forms of shelter would include entry restrictions depending on factors such as time of day or gender of the inhabitants, distinguishing them from permanent housing. While her committee is still in the early stages of planning, they are considering converting hotels into single-room occupancy shelters.

“We’re really trying to push for the permanent housing because it’s the permanent housing that gets the people off the street,” Shaw said.

But not everyone is confident in the government’s motive to aid the homeless community. SHARE Executive and senior Milly Morgan, who volunteers for various homeless shelters and organizations like Uplift Organization and Morning Glory Ministries, believes the law is a misguided attempt to address the housing issue. 

Morgan sees more direct career guidance and mental health resources rather than forced removal as stronger solutions to address the problem. After all, she said, organizations like Uplift distribute supplies directly to homeless encampments — the kind that are now banned.

“[The legislators] say that they’re fighting homelessness, and that they’re doing this for the benefit of these people who are in this situation,” Morgan said. “But in reality, they’re not fighting the issue of homelessness. They’re fighting the homeless people.”