Neighbors: Do you want tent encampments in your neighborhood, or in front of your business?
With no sanitation or security, it is unsafe for everyone.
Tell the Council TODAY!
Click below to tell councilmembers to Vote NO on proposed ordinance #220276 when they meet on Wednesday, 4/20 during the KCMO Finance Committee at 10:30 am
Ordinance #220276 is currently being discussed by the Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee for the Kansas City Missouri City Council. Their next meeting is Wednesday, April 20th, at 10:30 am on the 26th Floor, Council Chambers at City Hall. This meeting will be simulcast on Zoom.
Here are our concerns:
- Under this ordinance, if approved, your neighbor or a nearby business, or the city could give permission to anyone they chose to pitch a tent in their yard, or on their property for habitation. Multiple people. Multiple tents. No sanitation requirements.
- Abandoned buildings & empty lots (even with absentee owners) could become homeless encampments.
- A tent is not a zoning-approved structure. Kansas City has zoning laws for a reason. This ordinance would ignore current zoning laws, and also makes it difficult for law enforcement to do their job and remove aggressive loiters.
- How much notice is required by law enforcement to stop someone from loitering before they can be removed? It is unclear in this ordinance.
This ordinance will limit the voice of citizens in our neighborhoods and completely alter development & current city codes by allowing tenting on any public or private property. See below. It also makes enforcement tougher to stop loitering in the streets, sidewalks and outside of businesses. Let your council members and the mayor know that you want them to VOTE NO on ordinance #220276, and work collaboratively with neighborhoods, businesses, impacted persons, and the housing industry to create safe, dignified housing, not just temporary tents or pallet homes – for those that need it.
Learn More about Ordinance #220276 that is changing Sections 50-107 -Tenting without the consent of the owner and Section 50-161 Loitering
Ryana Parks-Shaw (sponsor): Amending Chapter 50, Code of Ordinances, by repealing Section 50-107, Tenting without consent of landowner, and Section 50-161, Loitering, and enacting in lieu thereof new sections of like number and subject matter, which will limit to private property the prohibition on tenting without consent of landowner, and, for a loitering in traffic violation, require that a person willfully obstruct, impede, interfere with, hinder or delay the reasonable movement of vehicular or pedestrian traffic, and prevent a person from being guilty of loitering unless such person has been given a reasonable opportunity to comply with an order from law enforcement to move on or disperse, after receiving actual notice or where notice was directed to them and was reasonably likely to come to such person’s attention.
Link to the city’s website: https://clerk.kcmo.gov/Calendar.aspx
4 Ways to Make Your Voice Heard:
1. Send an Email: Click on this Call to Action to send an email to all councilmembers and the mayor to ask them to Vote NO on Ordinance #220276.
2. Attend Virtually: Join the meeting by Zoom. Instructions, the agenda, Zoom link & ordinance will be in the link to the city’s website under the “Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee” next week prior to the meeting. Please remember that testimony is limited to only 1 minute, so be succinct and clear
3. Attend in Person: Attend the meeting in person at city hall to testify (City Hall, 26th Floor) the address is also on the link.
4. Share: Tell a neighbor or fellow business owner by sharing this Call to Action with them & your networks today. They need to hear from as many people as possible.
Committee Meeting
- Wednesday, April 20th at 10:30 am
- Kansas City Missouri City Hall, 26th Floor, Council Chamber.
- 414 E 12th Street, Kansas City Missouri
Link to Ordinance: https://kansascity.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5534811&GUID=37578446-7F14-4394-AF14-B16C86D7B928&Options=ID%7cText%7c&Search=220276
Link to Calendar:
https://kansascity.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
Zoom Link: The zoom link, meeting agenda, and instructions on how to participate will be published on the city’s calendar at the link above under the “Finance, Governance & Public Safety Committee” closer to the date and time of the meeting.
The 64 square foot pallet homes are set up in gated areas with bathing and laundry trailers on site as well as 24/7 security and on-site counselling to help people transition to permanent housing.
If you weren’t so BLIND to the fact that homelessness is not a “one size fits all” issue, you could have more & better prospects for the housing you claim to have available.
There are currently over 13,000 families in the metro who are approved for Section 8 vouchers, but no places who will take them.
Why don’t you encourage PRIVATE INVESTMENT for creation of diverse, affordable housing inventory instead of campaigning to criminalize being poor?
I personally like the idea of the pallet homes in a community. And I don’t mind my neighbor setting up a tent in his back yard from time to time, in fact he has a tiny camper he has illegally parked in his back yard for the past 2 years – can be parked in his yard if on a pad or a place built for it, but not rolling aroun d the yard. But I would take issue if my neighbor with no facilities for someone camping decided to allow say 10 to 20 tents with people habitating in them for extended periods. But I am in the city in close quarters – if we were out in a more spread out rural area – where my nearest neighbor was not visible to me, well then, I would be ok with the 10 to 20 tents . . .or a woodstock like event – right now the 107 part of the ordinance currently allows my neighbor where ever he is to allow habitation in a tent and the new also allows. I would say allowing is fine, but with some regulation to facilities being provided would be better.
And sadly, on the Section 8 front, it is not so much the renter that most object to, it is the process by which the government can pay or not pay once a person is renting in a home. Many just object to dealing with the housing authority . . perhaps we need to work more closely with the housing authority to make processes better and to educate the owners of housing so the system works better and more section 8 vouchered people could be placed.
Yes, we are doing just that. Many of us accept vouchers from the Housing Authorities. As business people, we always try to find solutions. We are in constant communication w/them and have offered suggestions on how they can be more efficient and good to do business with. My concern is with the insanitary living conditions that we expect/accept poor people to live in. This city just got $25million of our taxpayer dollars for housing. And, then they write an ordinance to allow humans to live in tents. They can do better & stop wasting our money. There are too many vacant properties that can be used for safe, dignified shelter. And as you know, many investors would be willing. We’ve created an affordable housing policy proposal (posted on this website). They won’t work with the private housing industry, unfortunately. They settle for tents.
If you looked at this website you’d see an entire report where we share our ideas with the city about how to create an environment where the private market wants to create more housing. We are the private market & do this already. The city instead creates laws that make the regulatory environment hostile for business people to want to invest.
With this ordinance, the city misses the mark yet again. They think that allowing tent cities – and just like the pallet sheds- there is no running water & plumbing in the housing unit which is illegal, unsanitary & not dignified housing. I’m not sure who you think is being criminalized, but it’s a crime to think that it’s a solution to put up a tent or shed when you have millions of dollars meant specifically for housing the poor and think you’re solving a problem. They need to do better. Just like I wouldn’t want my niece, nephew, sisters – anyone that I love to live in a tent or shed with a common public shower & no indoor plumbing. This is 2022. I don’t want it for anyone else. Can you imagine children, or single young women in that environment? If you choose to live that way, that’s a different story. We need to create more housing options, especially with all of these vacant properties sitting & deteriorating. The city needs to be forced to do better with our taxpayer dollars. Period, and no excuses..
It’s against federal laws to criminalize homelessness. These calls to action are well on the way to supporting illegal behavior.
Just liked we talked about the other day through our messaging, people deserve a choice about where & how they live. As you agreed, living in a tent is not ideal. This city has millions of dollars to create dignified housing. We need to hold them to that. Accepting less is what is criminal. No one is being criminalized. I am asking for the city to do better for us all. Our community is in this together. Our request is that the city work with those of us who create housing to do just that, create more housing. There are too many vacant properties sitting & deteriorating. Wasting. People deserve options. The city needs to do better. Today. Reach out to them & tell them. That’s what’s we’re doing through this Call to Action.
You asked to meet w/me via Zoom. I agreed, but never heard back from you, Amanda.