JoCo commissioner animated in opposition to homeless shelter

LENEXA, Kan. — The Johnson County Board of County Commissioners heard from Assistant County Manager Joseph Connor in a presentation Wednesday about a potential homeless shelter going in at the La Quinta Hotel off 95th Street and I-35 .

The project has the support of a majority of the BOCC. One of the commissioners that doesn’t support it though is Charlotte O’Hara.

“This is like a project that’s put together with chewing gum,” O’Hara said after the presentation.

She says the cities in the county have questions about how much money they’re going to have to spend to make the facility a reality. She had a number of questions for Connor.

“What about the environmental issues? What about the funding? What about the security issues?” she asked.

“You’ve asked about the environmental issues commissioner. I sent you an email specifically that addressed every one of those concerns, and there are none,” Connor responded.

Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner Shirley Allenbrand had a similar statement to Connor’s.

“When you start spreading stuff about environmental reports, people that are going to be bussed in from other countries, we should not be spreading that kind of rumor because that’s not what this is about,” she said.

The county could spend more than $10.5 million buying the property and the old Denny’s next door. The plan is to transfer the property over to reStart, a homeless service operator based in Kansas City, Mo. 50 beds would be used for the homeless while the other 40 or so at the hotel would be used for transitional housing.

“The majority of my colleagues just seem like ‘Hey, you know this is fine, We’re just going to run over the cliff, and we’ll figure this out,” O’Hara said. “This is inexcusable.”

Wednesday, the group called United Community Services of Johnson County (UCS), which provides data analysis to residents, says in January of this year, 250 people were experiencing homelessness.

The county in their most recent report, said 235 individuals were experiencing homelessness, and out of that number, only 50 of them were unsheltered though.

“So it doesn’t immediately get us to functional zero, but it’s a huge step in the direction of meeting a need that otherwise goes unmet in our community,” Commission Chair Mike Kelly said during Wednesday’s meeting.

The plan would be for the county to complete the purchase of the property in October. The shelter, or homeless services center, could open next summer.

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