Discriminatory Practices And ‘Do Nothingness’ Against Returning Citizens Seeking Housing Assistance Must Stop

The Help(KC) is the only local nonprofit organization in Kansas City that is led by a justice-involved woman who exclusively serves and supports other justice-involved women.

In April two recently released women came to The Help's office seeking social support, employment, and housing resources.

One of the young ladies was currently living in a Kansas City hotel paying $750 per month for rent. She was also employed until she sustained an injury on the job breaking her shoulder and was told by doctors that healing time would be approximately six-weeks. With no income to continue paying the hotel's rent, she was facing homelessness and needed to vacate by May 7.

The other young lady was temporarily living at the Restart Shelter. She also was facing homelessness again as she surpassed her time at the shelter.

The Help(KC) has affiliation with a 12-bed boarding home as well as 6-bed transitional home however we do not have funding to cover the cost of the bed space ($140 weekly). Beginning April 19, I began seeking rental and utilities assistance for the ladies to prevent their homelessness.

I contacted most if not all the agencies that are listed on the City's website seeking assistance, however, these returning citizens did NOT meet any of the agency's criteria for assistance. That is discrimination supported by Kansas City and Jackson County because you either knew or should have known that their practices are discriminatory.

In total desperation, I reached out to City Manager Brian Platt in hopes that he would do or say something to the housing assistance contacts: Tiffany Drummer and/ or Nicole Woods to try to get these ladies some assistance, but to no avail.

From there we reached out to Troy Schulte with Jackson County who referred us to Metropolitan Lutheran Ministries. We contacted them on April 29, left a message and to date we have not received a reply.

Lastly, I spoke to Jane Brown on May 6, and there has been no follow through.

Subsequently, one of the ladies obtained housing assistance in Troy, Missouri and relocated there. Unfortunately, I can no longer reach the other young lady and it is my belief that she may have returned to the streets.

As it stands TODAY, Jackson County sits on $25,000,000 (TWENTY-FIVE MILLION

DOLLARS) for rental and utilities assistance and two returning citizens couldn't even get assistance with $1,200 collectively, because they didn't meet the criteria! Likewise, Kansas City has millions for housing assistance just sitting there.

Let me be clear, The Help(KC)'s organization did NOT want the funds/check written out to us nor did the two ladies want the funds personally. We wanted funding to go directly to the transitional living facility, listed on the City's website that citizens are referred to, to secure bed space.

It is very unfortunate that local government doesn't do much in this regard. Reentry support isn't even included in the city's budget! I've been to private and public forums where empty reentry rhetoric was thrown around yet returning citizens are still shut out of opportunities needed that will aid in their successful reintegration.

What will it take to include reentry as a social policy when it's NOT separate from any other social policies?

Contrary to popular belief, not all returning citizens resort to living off crime, there are some justice-involved individuals who want access to mental health services, substance abuse resources, sustainable housing, and gainful employment to provide for themselves and their families; overall, they want to be better, and these two ladies were no exception and yet we failed them!

Ms. Brown suggested possibly passing an ordinance for returning citizens to get assistance, although that is an option but why is passing an ordinance for rental assistance necessary when the funding was already earmarked for that purpose? We have a group of disadvantaged individuals seeking help and there are NOT enough resources and effort into truly rehabilitating these people.

It is extremely difficult for individuals to be released from prison and return to society with hardly any reentry support to help them. Ignoring formerly incarcerated individuals will continue to wreak havoc on violence and crime rates and recidivism rates will continue to increase. If you want returning citizens to rebuild their lives, then we need the tools!

“Doing nothing is a choice too.” Mayor Quinton Lucas, Facebook May 23rd.