KSHB 41 reporter La’Nita Brooks covers stories providing solutions and offering discussions on topics of crime and violence. She also covers stories in the Northland. Share your story idea with La’Nita.
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Trash and debris cover areas where homeless encampments once stood before the city dismantled them.
With neighborhoods of homes and cars sitting nearby, Kansas City, Missouri, officials say they're working to clean up the camps as part of their efforts to address homelessness.
"It's just not right," said Anton Washington, executive director of Creative Innovative Street Outreach and Community Engagement.
Washington is familiar with this work and has witnessed the recent increase in encampment removals.
"Last couple of months, even before the new year, encampments have been decommissioned and dismantled for the reason of public safety, understand that," Washington said.
Over the past month, city officials have been tackling homeless encampments one at a time, partly under their Zero KC initiative — a plan to end homelessness in the city.
As part of that effort, the city provides social services and helps connect people to find housing.
Washington said he wants the city to provide more help for those forced to relocate.
Keith Lyons has been living unhoused for the past few years and believes the current approach isn't effective.
"Getting rid of everybody and tearing down their equipment is causing more of a problem," Lyons said. "Because all they're going to do is move to a different spot. It'll be more trash, more issues, same level of crime. It's not going to solve anything."
Lyons says they are often caught off guard during the sweeps.
"They come with the KCPD, or sometimes Jackson County sheriff's department, a lot of city workers and you gotta go," Lyons said.
The situation brought him to Neighbor to Neighbor, an organization that helps those living unhoused and battling substance abuse.
Gregory Parr, executive director of Neighbor to Neighbor, said most people they serve struggle with substance use and mental health issues.
"Mostly it's substance use and mental disorder. We want to hear the city talk about solutions. Where can we go from here? Where can they go from there?" Parr said.
Solutions can make a difference for people like Terri Hergins, who was living in a camp but found housing through the VA's office.
"Just knowing that it's permanent," Hergins said, becoming emotional. "It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop."
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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