2026-10-01 · housing
Kansas City Has Tried for Years to Reduce Homelessness. What’s Different This Time?
Kansas City’s Housing Gateway, established by the City Council in February with $1 million, set a first-year goal of 600 housing placements, about 400 rapid resolutions for newly homeless people and 200 intensive interventions for long-term homeless people, and has $10.8 million committed toward a $26 million two-year goal, per the Kansas City Business Journal. The program plans to permanently close eight encampment areas in its first phase around greater downtown, the Country Club Plaza and 18th & Vine, and closed its first encampment this month, moving five people into housing. The city said unsheltered homelessness has risen about 168% since 2018 and estimates about 1,750 single adults enter homelessness regionwide each year.
The Royals’ downtown stadium community-benefits agreement, approved by the council in August, committed $5 million of the program’s funding.