Independence leaders call for regional, early-intervention response as homelessness rises

Councilwoman McCandless and officials from local service providers briefed the Independence City Council at a Nov. 10 study session on the growing local challenge of homelessness and steps the city and partners are using to prevent and mitigate it.

Councilwoman McCandless told the council that homelessness in the region is rising and that local housing markets have tightened. She cited an estimated regional shortfall of about 60,000 affordable units and warned that a share of subsidized units will 'drop out' of affordability as federal restrictions expire, noting "we think 20% of those units will drop out the next 5 years." She said barriers to rehousing include lost identification, outstanding warrants, past evictions and behavioral-health and substance-use disorders.

"Nobody gets to homelessness without a bunch of stuff happening to them on the front end," McCandless said, urging early intervention and regional coordination. She described city tools that are in use: ordinances that prohibit camping on public property and require permits for soliciting money, park and police authority to clear illegal encampments, demolition of dangerous buildings used as shelter, and recent zoning changes to allow group living facilities and drop-in centers.

Amber Bauer, senior director of the Continuum of Care at the Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness, outlined the HUD point-in-time (PIT) count process and its limits. She said the PIT is a HUD-mandated 24-hour count held in January (within the last 10 days of the month) and that methodology choices and hidden populations (people doubled up, in hotels, cars, hospitals or jail) can lead to undercounts. Bauer gave Independence-area results from the most recent count: 150 unsheltered individuals were counted; of those, 41 were chronically homeless, 53 were newly counted in the PIT, 33 had a disability, about 20% were over age 50 and 72% were recorded as white. She cautioned that many households — particularly doubled-up families and youth identified under McKinney-Vento rules — are not captured by HUD's PIT methodology.

"It takes a coordinated effort of the community," Bauer said, describing outreach at feeding sites, in parks and in encampments and urging continued effort to improve the count's accuracy.

Doug Cowan, president and CEO of Community Services League (CSL), described the nonprofit's Independence Together program, a supported-employment model launched in March 2023. Cowan said CSL has hired dozens of participants, placed workers on litter and roadway crews (including an expanded five-year contract with MoDOT), and helped many participants into stable housing or other employment. Cowan said the city contracts with CSL for $100,000 annually and that CSL leverages additional grants and donations; he added that CSL paid for more than 5,000 motel nights for people last year and that the city contributed about $41,000 to that effort.

Cowan described a drop-in center (basement of Good Shepherd Community of Christ on Blue Ridge Boulevard) that serves 50–60 people daily from Independence and nearby cities, provides meals, identification assistance and referrals, and supports a cold‑weather hotel/motel placement program activated on the region's coldest nights.

Council members pressed presenters on whether Independence's PIT count understates local need. McCandless acknowledged limits and estimated that an accurate local figure might be closer to 250 unsheltered people when including those who refuse to participate in counts or are otherwise missed. Council discussion repeatedly emphasized families, children doubled up in motels or with other households, and older adults as critical risk groups.

On service capacity, presenters and council members noted constraints: ARCH, the city's paramedic/social-work crisis response team, operates weekdays and is funded by opioid-settlement dollars; cold-weather shelter has relied on costly hotel placements; and pet ownership remains a major barrier to shelter entry because many shelters cannot accommodate animals.

Council members also discussed past cross-jurisdictional hotel placements, including a recalled 2021 instance in which Kansas City paid to house some people in Independence hotels; presenters said the operation provoked community backlash and was curtailed. Several members urged continued regional coordination and community involvement, with the council noting that the city cannot solve the problem alone.

The study session concluded with staff recommending that appointment resolutions for several boards and commissions be added to the next regular meeting agenda; no formal vote on those reappointments occurred at the study session.

What happens next: presenters urged continued outreach, improved PIT methodology and regional collaboration; several council members signaled support for drop-in services, document-access solutions for residents (cloud storage of IDs) and exploring shelter models that can better accommodate pets and families.

Sources: Remarks at the Nov. 10, 2025 Independence City Council study session, including Councilwoman McCandless; Amber Bauer, Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness; Doug Cowan, Community Services League.