Last year alone, more than 13,000 homeless people sought help from Kansas City outreach organizations.
Recognizing the magnitude of the issue, the Kansas City, Mo. Police Department hosted a conference Friday for residents, politicians, law enforcement and business people to come together in search of a solution to end homelessness.
“If we had 13,000 people with measles or yellow fever, we would call it an epidemic,” said Brian O’Malley, executive director of the Homeless Services Coalition of Greater Kansas City. “We would rally around finding a cause for the epidemic and we would get treatment to those in need.”
HSC data shows the problem of homelessness is increasing, with 739 new homeless this year.
“It is enveloped,” O’Malley said. “Spreading like cancer, the epidemic is eating away at our community’s resources. We have to join forces to combat this epidemic, we have to rally whatever the cure is that is needed and we need to begin this today.”
Dr. George Harris, co-chair of the Homelessness Summit Task Force and moderator of the conference, said the event was meant to act as a catalyst to activate residents to take a vested interest in the problem.
“The end of homelessness is a lofty but necessary goal for the future vitality of our community,” he said. “To end homelessness, it is now clear that there must be an integration and coordination of private and public social service efforts, police and judicial responses to public policy initiatives.”
Police Chief James Corwin and other presenters noted it costs more to ignore homelessness than it does to deal with it.
The KCPD estimates they receive 25 calls a week involving the homeless. Eliminating just one call per week could amount to nearly $2 million in annual savings, according to a report by the KCPD.
The conference ended with a panel’s discussing efforts made by other cities and possible steps Kansas City could take. Panelists included Corwin; O’Malley; Suzanne Discenza, of Rockhurst University; attorney Charles German; Molly Merrigan, commissioner of the Family and Juvenile Drug Court; former city councilman Alvin Brooks; Municipal Court Judge Joe Locasio; Downtown Council CEO Bill Dietrich and City Councilwoman Cathy Jolly.
All agreed it would take a united effort for changes to take place.
“One measure of our community,” O’Malley said, “is how we treat the least of our citizens.” |
