National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day, Sept. 29

Volunteers survey Kansas City’s homeless

Local 100,000 Homes Campaign will find housing for 100 of the most vulnerable

Keith, a Kansas City 100,000 Homes Campaign volunteer asks a homeless woman some survey questions in the activity center at Hope Faith Ministries.

Teams of volunteers braved frigid temperatures in Kansas City on Jan. 31 — as part of the local 100,000 Homes Campaign’s Registry Event — to identify, by name, the most vulnerable homeless individuals and families in the area. Local organizers hope the Registry Event will help compile more thorough data than what is currently available and help find homes for 100 of the most vulnerable people identified.

The event was held in conjunction with the Kansas City Continuum of Care (Kansas City, Blue Springs, Independence and Jackson County, Mo.) biannual point-in-time count. The biannual count is required by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development office (HUD) to support strategic planning and the reduction of the homeless population across the nation.

During a pilot survey conducted on Oct. 3, 2012, in preparation for the Registry Event, 25 volunteers identified 150 homeless individuals in the 64106 zip code and the long-term homeless camps along Front Street and the Missouri River. The full survey — designed to collect a registry complete with names and pictures of everyone experiencing homelessness in the area — was administered throughout Jackson County.

The Homelessness Task Force (HTF) of Greater Kansas City, supported by MARC, which brings together nonprofit agencies, private businesses, local governments, philanthropic organizations and others, will use the data collected during the Registry Event to work toward the elimination of homelessness in the region. One of the task force’s partners, reStart, Inc., secured funding from the Missouri Housing Development Commission to become part of the 100,000 Homes Campaign — a national movement of communities working together to find permanent homes for 100,000 vulnerable and chronically homeless individuals and families by July 2014.

600 Broadway, Suite 200
Kansas City, MO 64105-1659
816/474-4240
Fax: 816/421-7758

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