KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City, Missouri, officials say they're aware of a homelessness camp along the south end of the historic Harry Wiggins Trolley Track Trail.
It has been flagged by city outreach teams and the public should continue to feel safe using the trail.
Rick Castillo, a supervisor Park Ranger for KCMO, said the homelessness camp has grown.
“This is actually a fairly large one — given the number of personal items that are here, it means they’ve been here a while," Castillo said.
People who use the trail have taken notice.
“It’s a really hard question,” Nancy Strauser said. “I even have to ask myself what I think about this. My initial reaction is I don’t like it, it makes me feel a little more unsafe. But on the other hand, I feel bad for the people living in the tents and I wish they weren’t living in those tents, it’s a hard question.”
KSHB 41 News met a man living on the trail who says he had a job outside of Missouri working in concrete before the pandemic.
Afterwards, he came back to his hometown in KCMO and fell on hard times.
“It’s been a process, slow going,” he told KSHB 41 News.
He says keeping a job is hard when he can’t keep up his hygiene.
The man said he previously had food stamps, but didn’t re-apply because he didn’t get a notice in the mail due to not having an address.
“I’m not just lying around thinking I want to be here,” he said. “It’s like quicksand, I can fight it all I want but I need a handout. You can’t get out yourself, you need somebody to pull you out.”
Castillo said it is illegal to pitch a tent and camp on city parks property.
“They know if we allow them to stay, that will encourage others, and it stretches our resources even more,” he said.
Castillo weighed in on the time it takes before the city takes action on cleaning a camp.
“If you just put a tent out, typically we give you two days to get your personal belongings and relocate,” he said. “If it’s more significant like this, it’s really a negotiated timeline, because it depends on what the other city services are able to do."
He says safety, cleanliness and enforcement come next.
“My biggest concern is it’s going to be getting cold very soon, for the safety of these people,” he said. “They’re also right next to a stream, anything that’s waste up here will go into a stream and another huge concern is the huge amount of trash litter.”
The city says once outreach services are provided and eventually a deadline will be set to clean up the camp.
The city of KCMO recently released a plan to end homelessness entitled Zero KC.
Part of the plan includes building capacity in organizations that provide services to those who are rough sleeping.
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