Familiar Kansas City homeless services organization chosen to run Johnson County shelter

A longtime homeless services provider in Kansas City has been selected to run a proposed permanent shelter in Johnson County, which is under consideration at the site of an old Lenexa hotel.

Johnson County officials have begun the process of purchasing a shuttered restaurant and La Quinta Inn and Suites off of Interstate 35 in Lenexa, to convert into a long-needed, year-round homeless shelter. It’s a major milestone for advocates who have pushed for such a resource in the county, which has some beds for families and single women, but no permanent shelter for single men.

As the county works toward purchasing the hotel, a committee put together by the nonprofit United Community Services has been considering requests for a shelter operator. The county on Wednesday announced the group unanimously recommends a proposal from the nonprofit reStart Inc., which has been serving homeless Kansas Citians with an emergency shelter and other programs downtown since the early 1980s.

“With 40 years of experience, reStart is a community leader in supporting those who are unhoused while addressing the underlying causes of chronic and generational homelessness,” Johnson County Commission Chairman Mike Kelly said in a statement. “I thank the committee for its recommendation and look forward to continued progress on this issue in Johnson County.”

The Johnson County Board of Commissioners in December entered into a real estate purchase agreement with MAA Krupa Lenexa, LLC to purchase the two properties at 9461 and 9471 Lenexa Drive. The county is proposing a year-round homeless shelter with about 50 private rooms and support services to help residents work toward permanent housing.

The site would be purchased with $6 million in federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, established by the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021. Another $500,000 in federal funding is going toward other work related to the sale during a 270-day period, including the county negotiating a buyout of hotel franchise fees, obtaining a private appraisal and conducting a title review.

But last month, the board learned the cost was going up and the process would take longer than expected, raising some concerns among commissioners and residents.

The commission approved an amendment to the contract, extending the closing deadline by eight weeks, to the end of October. And commissioners approved an additional $350,000 to pay the seller’s franchise liquidation fee, which was higher than anticipated.

As the county entered into the real estate agreement, officials put out a request for proposals to select an owner and operator to take over the facility and manage the shelter. United Community Services formed a 16-member selection committee, including county staff, homeless service experts and representatives from the cities of Lenexa and Overland Park, to make a recommendation. The group landed on reStart.

“We appreciate the recommendation from the committee convened by UCS and are excited by the possibility of providing housing support on the other side of the state line,” reStart’s Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Boyer said in the county news release. “All of us at reStart are impressed by the work done in Johnson County so far to address this issue in our community and are pleased to join the process as it moves forward.”

County spokeswoman Anne Christiansen-Bullers told The Star in an email that reStart will now be involved in the due diligence process as the county works toward closing on the hotel purchase. The nonprofit also will help officials prepare for a request for a special use permit from the city of Lenexa to operate the shelter.

County officials have said the 106-room Lenexa hotel is the right size for the county’s needs, allowing for some expansion if needed, and offers access to several bus routes and other nearby services.

Kelly previously said that if the county closes on the sale, there will be much work to do, including deciding a funding model for operating and maintaining the shelter once it opens.

Advocates and faith leaders for years have pushed for the establishment of a permanent shelter in the county. But opposition from neighbors and strict zoning laws have long stalled any progress.

Meanwhile, Johnson County’s homeless population has continued to grow.

According to last year’s “point in time” count — a one-night snapshot tally of the homeless population conducted by agencies across the country and locally — 235 people in Johnson County were living in emergency shelters, transitional housing, in tents, cars or on the streets. That’s up from 130 people in 2017, and 180 people in 2020.

The majority, 75% were adults without children with them.

“We have so many amazing resources here in Johnson County. But today, if you are in need of housing in Johnson County but either don’t have children, are not justice-involved nor experiencing domestic violence, you don’t have many options,” United Community Services Executive Director Kristy Baughman said in the release. “I’m excited to see the county take this important step in an ongoing process to increase options in Johnson County.”

City and county leaders have shown a stronger desire to address the need in the past couple of years.

Johnson County allocated $60,000 of federal COVID relief funding toward studying the feasibility of opening a shelter. Olathe Pastor Lee Jost, executive director of the nonprofit NCircle, and Lenexa Councilman Joe Karlin, who owns a consulting firm, led the feasibility study and presented early plans for a shelter with as many as 50 beds, with adults expected to stay 90 days on average.

Without the permanent shelter, the local nonprofit Project 1020 has been running a temporary shelter out of churches during the winter since 2015. But it has only been able to house a small fraction of the people in Johnson County who need it.