We have two important discussions on this week’s agenda and hope you will make an extra effort to join us. We will be considering how neighborhoods and organizations serving the homeless could work together. We will also move forward with our new initiative to track changes in quality-of-life issues through our efforts.
The Task Force is made up of businesses, neighborhoods, and residents working to understand and address problems with loitering, lack of housing and drug activity in Midtown. We will review recent activity and plan future activities. If you cannot attend but would like to receive updates on the results of the meeting and plans for the future, please contact 38thstreettaskforce@gmail.com.
- How could we help to solve the problems of chronic homelessness? One of our long-time members, Barry Heiman, will be joined by Simon Messmer, chairman of the Greater Kansas City Coalition Against Homelessness and architect Jack Rees. They believe there is a solution to chronic homelessness: for mental health organizations and neighborhoods to work together. We want these two groups to create what we are calling a “Good Neighbor Agreement”, which would establish base line rules and behaviors for housing the homeless in KC neighborhoods. They are hoping that this meeting will be the first dialogue in this effort.
To prepare, please have a look at this video.
- Priorities for measuring improvement: At the December meeting, we developed a new strategy for our work. We will create a baseline report on quality -of-life conditions along 38th Street (from Main to SW Trafficway) and track whether our efforts have any impact over the coming year. We need to narrow down the list and will do that at the meeting.
To prepare, read the attached report on the initiative and think about which of the items below should be the highest priorities.
| Data from KCPD |
| Data reported to KCPD |
| Porch lights |
| Little liquor bottles and cans |
| Loitering |
| Ask people what problems |
| Quality of curbs, lighting (how the area looks) |
| Housing stock |
| 311 calls |
| “Point in time” homeless count |
| Parking |
| Traffic/accidents |
| Reports to KCPD |
| Bus stops |
| Drug deals |
| Graffiti |
| Cameras |
| Community engagement |