A CALL TO ACTION
What can you do to help?
At any given time, around 1,790 people are experiencing homelessness in the greater Kansas City metro. Of those individuals, around 430 are unsheltered, according to the greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness.
A handful of nonprofits and government agencies across the city are attempting to address not only the homeless population’s immediate needs but also the root cause. We collected information on several of the most accessible groups making strides in the battle against homelessness right here, right now.
16 Ways to Help
By Ian Ritter
Hope Faith Ministries
Hope Faith Ministries (705 Virginia Ave., KCMO) is a KCMO-based organization just east of downtown that provides daytime services to homeless residents, as well as overnight housing during winter’s coldest months. The 48,000-square-foot Homeless Assistance Campus offers meals, showers, optical exams, haircuts and laundry. Hope Faith volunteers last year served just over 104,000 meals to 4,619 guests. From Dec. 1 to Feb. 28, the facility is open from 6 pm to 6 am as an overnight shelter. Hope Faith, a non-denominational Christian ministry founded in 2004, is seeking cash contributions and volunteer caregivers to assist in the facility, and it has an Amazon.com wish list. Find more information at hopefaith.org or call 816-471-4673.
The Beehive
The Beehive Health & Housing Collaborative (750 The Paseo, KCMO) helps the underserved with several vital social services, such as medical and dental care, behavioral health, housing support, identity documents and more. The organization partners with the onsite NourishKC Community Kitchen and Care Beyond the Boulevard—the latter offers comprehensive medical care for the homeless. Beehive is looking for donations as well as volunteers. Positions can range “from helping out with our front desk to one of our many ongoing initiatives,” according to the Beehive’s website. Donations go toward “expanding housing and employment opportunities, advocating for equitable policies around housing, law enforcement and education,” per the website. Find out more information at beehivekc.us.
Shelter KC
With “Hope for All Who Enter Here” printed on its door, Shelter KC is a faith-based rescue mission sheltering homeless men and women. Its men’s facility (1520 Cherry St., KCMO) offers solutions for short-term homelessness, as well as recovery programs. Also near downtown, Shelter KC operates a 20-bed location specifically for single women. Women can work with a case manager and acquire job skills through life coaching and work therapy, as well as receive substance abuse treatment. Founded in 1950, the mission also offers educational and life-skills classes in combination with job-placement programs through partnerships with several local businesses. Shelter KC seeks holiday volunteers as well as donations of gift cards, planners, alarm clocks and cash. Find out more information at shelterkc.org or call 816-421-7643.
The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center
The Salvation Army helps residents in need across the metro area with several services, but many might not know that the organization bills itself as the largest provider of no-cost drug-recovery programs. About 150,000 adults are cared for annually by Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Centers in the Midwest, including a location near downtown KCMO. The organization does this through “180-day residential work-therapy programs providing spiritual, social and emotional assistance to people who have lost the ability to cope with their problems and provide for themselves.” Salvation Army thrift store sales go toward the rehab centers’ operations. To learn how to volunteer or to donate goods or money, visit satruck.org or call 800-728-7825.
Getting to Zero
Kansas City’s ZeroKC plan is a multi-pronged approach to ending homelessness By Ryan Reed
By Ryan Reed
ZeroKC is the strategic plan created by Kansas City’s Houseless Task Force with the goal to get homelessness in Kansas City to “Functional Zero.”
The plan is strong, city officials think, because it works on the premise of agreement. Right out of the gate, the goal was to create five pillars on which people agree. The first pillar is brilliant in its simplicity: “Living outside is dangerous.”
Joshua Henges, the Houseless Prevention Coordinator for the City of Kansas City and a member of the Task Force, feels like this is the most important place to start. “Kansas City’s worldview on homelessness is based on very little information and a whole lot of emotion,” Henges says. “So we wanted those pillars to be agreements. If you want to end homelessness, you have to agree with these five things. It’s why the first one is “living outside is dangerous,” because there are sizable chunks of our population who believe that people in homeless camps should be left alone. If you believe living outside is dangerous then that’s not an option. I don’t want to live in a passive system where we think homelessness is a lifestyle because it is certainly and indecisively not.”
“Functional Zero,” as the plan calls it, is a state where the city can handle homelessness in real time with viable systems and resources. The hard part about achieving Functional Zero is that first you have to deal with all the people currently unhoused. “We have at least 2,000 people who we have to get off the street, which will take a lot of time,” Henges says. “One hundred human resource hours per person is not unheard of. And we have to create the affordable housing. Then there is treatment and transitional housing. It’s a lot. It is going to take investment.”
The entire plan is available online, and Henges hopes that other cities will seek it out and find it useful. “My copyright is your right to copy,” he says.
So how can we help? Henges stresses two things to consider when looking to volunteer or contribute: “Do not give money directly to people living on the street, and do not give money or time to any group that is not directly working toward getting people off the street,” Henges says.
Henges suggests looking into groups that may be close to your heart, be that single mothers or veterans. Find the groups that are working to help these communities and read their plans. “Whatever response to homelessness you’re going to do, run it through one filter: Is the thing I’m doing going to lead to this person getting off the streets? Is it going to lead to this person ending their homelessness? That’s number one.”
Morning Glory Ministries
Morning Glory Ministries offers free breakfast every morning at its facility attached to the gold-topped Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (416 W 12th St., KCMO) downtown. In addition to the morning meals, the ministry gives the homeless emergency assistance Tuesday through Friday mornings, offering clothing, hygiene and pantry items, help with documentation and more. Morning Glory also provides free lunches Saturdays and Sundays. The organization seeks volunteers to help in the cafe and with emergency assistance volunteering. Donations are accepted to fund a variety of Morning Glory projects, from the kitchen to capital improvements. For more information, visit morningglorykc.org or call 816-842-0416.
Bishop Sullivan Center
Bishop Sullivan Center provides services to financially challenged KCMO residents. A faith-based concern, the organization has three pillars: food, jobs and aid. The organization runs One City Café (3936 Troost Ave., KCMO), which serves 8,000 meals a month at its Midtown outpost. Households receive assistance from two city pantries, one in Midtown and another in the Northeast. Bishop Sullivan helps unemployed residents learn the skills to find a job and also provides assistance with clothing and medical care. Its Project ElderCool provides free air conditioning units to elderly residents or those who have ailments exasperated by the heat. Bishop Sullivan is looking for donations, including sponsorship of a night at One City Café. Volunteers are needed in several areas at the center. For more information, visit bishopsullivan.org or call 816-231-0984.
Family Promise of the Northland
Family Promise of the Northland offers a day center north of the Missouri River that gives housing-challenged guests free access to laundry facilities, private showers and restrooms, as well as free Wi-Fi and other amenities. Family Promise picks up residents in need via van at pickup points in the city and brings them to its facility by appointment. The program is part of a national network of more than 200 independent affiliates across the country, linked by the Interfaith Hospitality Network. Family Promise works with several Northland churches to provide guests additional support. To donate, visit familypromisenorthland.org or call 816-888-7070.
Neighbor2Neighbor
Neighbor2Neighbor, temporarily located in St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church (2910 Victor St., KCMO) on the East Side, serves free lunch and breakfast from Monday to Friday. While looking for a permanent location following a fire in 2023, the organization continues to offer drug-treatment, detox and housing referrals as well as a “safe place to relax and be out of the elements.” N2N also has a seasonal clothing closet that gives away hygiene products. The organization, estimated to serve about 80 people a day, is looking for volunteers in meal donation and preparation as well as help in N2N’s clothing store. Go to n2n4kc.com or call 816-606-4509 for more information.
TINY HOMES SOLVING BIG PROBLEMS
VCP’s Tiny-Home Strategy Grows as Vet Homelessness Dips
By Ian Ritter
It’s no coincidence that a KC-based organization that builds tiny homes for vets is in growth mode while the national number of homeless vets declines.
The Veterans Community Project was founded in 2016 right here in Kansas City and operates its flagship location, the VCP Village, with 49 tiny homes on a plot of land at Troost Avenue and 89th Street.
The organization recently opened tiny home housing developments in Longmont, Colorado, about 35 miles north of Denver, with 26 tiny homes and a 3,000-square-foot community center. Locations in St. Louis and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, were opened in 2023, and VCP is raising funds to build communities in the Milwaukee, Oklahoma and Phoenix areas.
Established by a group of combat veterans, the VCP provides high-quality temporary housing to help homeless vets meet the challenges of day-to-day living, resolve immediate crises and move into permanent housing.
True Light Family Resource Center
True Light Family Resource Center in Midtown KCMO highlights its Emancipation Station, which provides a safe place for homeless women to shelter, as well as several in-house programs. In addition to the emancipation space, which is open weekdays from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm and offers laundry and showers, True Light operates a transitional home. The organization also provides free breakfast on Saturday mornings at Metropolitan Lutheran Ministry (722 Reynolds Ave., KCK). True Light seeks volunteers for its breakfast program and donations for its sack lunch and elderly food distribution programs. For more information, go to truelightfrc.org or call 816-381-9310.
Westport Presbyterian Church/ Westport Showers
Westport Presbyterian Church’s Westport Showers program offers several different programs for unhoused people six days a week. Showers, laundered clothing, hot breakfasts and other resources are available on Sunday mornings. There are Thursday night showers for women and trans and gender-nonconforming visitors. The church (201 Westport Road, KCMO) also provides sack lunches on weekdays. Westport Showers needs volunteers for food prep, cleaning, laundry and other tasks. The organization, which started at the suggestion of postal workers across the street who saw a need in the neighborhood, seeks cash donations as well as food and particular types of clothing. For more information, visit westportshowers.org or call 816-931-1032.
KC CARE Health Center
KC CARE Health Center is a Midtown KCMO facility that provides primary medical care and other health services to unhoused and underinsured residents. Founded just over 50 years ago, KC CARE services include LGBT+ care, women’s health, testing, screening, dental care and more. The group recently completed a capital campaign funding renovation to the campus, allowing for a 30 percent increase in patient capacity by the work’s December 2025 completion. In August, KC CARE launched a program that focuses on medical care delivery to local immigrants and refugees. Several volunteer opportunities requiring various job skills are available in the organization. For more information or to make a donation, go to kccare.org or call 816-753-5144.
Journey to New Life
Journey to New Life provides opportunities to those reentering society from incarceration. Part of the nonprofit’s mission is to accept people as they are, “providing first stop services, residences, case management and employment assistance in a safe and supportive environment.” Journey to New Life operates two resident homes with a combined 36 beds, where individuals might stay for several months during their transition, during which they have a case manager and employment training. The organization is looking for volunteers in several areas, including office help, movers, intake specialists and other positions. Besides cash, Journey to New Life encourages donations of new men’s and women’s underwear; jeans, workwear and work shoes; kitchen utensils; and more. Visit journeytonewlife.org or call 816-960-4808 for more information.
“What we’ve done in Kansas City is fundamentally change the conversation nationwide on how to address veteran homelessness.”
With the help of volunteers, the VCP builds the 240-square-foot to 320-square-foot furnished single homes for vets, along with offering myriad other social services. It’s community-driven, says Bryan Meyer, CEO of VCP, who helped found the venture in 2016.
During the first six months of 2024 alone, VCP provided homes for 16 new veterans, helped a total of 702 veterans in crisis and gave out more than 3,400 pantry boxes. The VCP reports that 85 percent of its vets successfully transition into permanent housing. Its newsletter celebrates those who have moved on from VCP facilities and are now gainfully employed or even homeowners.
Meanwhile, in October, the total number of homeless veterans in the United States decreased 7.5 percent year over year, falling to 32,882 nationwide, according to a joint report by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Missouri saw an even greater improvement in unsheltered veterans, with a nine percent year-on-year decrease, according to what is called the Point-in-Time Count, a snapshot of the area’s homeless community last taken in January 2024.
“I encourage people to celebrate the fact that Kansas City has the best program in the United States for homeless veterans, and the community built this thing,” Meyer says. “What we’ve done in Kansas City is fundamentally change the conversation nationwide on how to address veteran homelessness.”
The nonprofit was recognized at its Troost campus on Sept. 11 this year by VA Secretary Denis McDonough, who toured the facility for Patriot Day. Meyer says that VCP is in talks with the VA about partnering with the express mission to build more tiny homes at a much faster pace.
In October, the VA announced that it had housed just under 48,000 homeless veterans over its fiscal year, breaking its goal target by about 7,000 individuals a month ahead of schedule.
U.S. Veteran Affairs Homeless Veteran Care
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides area resources that aim to tackle veteran homelessness. Local program coordinators help provide immediate food and shelter, job training, support with societal reentry from jail, addiction treatment and other services are provided by the VA. Mobile food pantries make weekly visits to both the Kansas City VA Medical Center on KCMO’s East Side, as well as the outpatient Honor VA Clinic. For information about numerous volunteering opportunities or to donate to the VA’s homelessness programs, go to volunteer.va.gov or call 800-698-2411. Online donors can direct funds toward specific facilities and programs.
Benilde Hall
Benilde Hall helps men facing homelessness due to substance abuse and mental health challenges by offering them housing and treatment resources. The facility (3220 E. 23rd St., KCMO) opened in 1993 and can house up to 110 men, with 53 beds designated for homeless veterans. The location is one of 24 Safe Haven programs in the United States that provides a “low-stress, low-demand environment” for homeless vets. A registered nurse is on staff at Benilde Hall, where residents can receive on-site psychological services, financial and independent living skills, as well as a work program. Benilde Hall accepts men’s clothing, bedding and other items. To donate and for more information, go to benildehall.org or call 816-842-5836.
Synergy Services
Synergy Services helps youth, teens and families around the metro area who are victims of domestic violence. The nonprofit, with a staff of 110, operates a 24/7 crisis phone line, emergency shelter, mental health treatment and transitional housing. Additionally, Synergy’s website guides patients through an initial intake to make sure they are being sent to the right caregiving location. Its facilities include a domestic violence center and different facilities for children and youth. More than 1,500 volunteers have passed through Synergy, and there are a multitude of volunteer opportunities. To learn more about volunteering or giving to the organization, visit synergyservices.org or call 816-587-4100.
The Micah Ministry
Associated with the Independence Boulevard Christian Church, the Micah Ministry (2910 Victor St., KCMO) is an outreach mission geared toward “unhoused and food-insecure people in the historic Northeast area” of KCMO. The program offers hot meals from 5:30 pm to 7 pm every Monday, along with hygiene products, clothing and access to a free medical clinic. Micah Ministry seeks volunteers, clothing donations, meal sponsorships and other goods. Blankets, tents and sleeping bags are in-demand items. Find out more information at ibcckc.org/themicahministry or call 816-231-0016.
