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Officials collected video evidence of out-of-state law enforcement vehicles dropping people off at truck stops. Some medical systems seemed to be involved, too (Naomi O’Donnell\/The Beacon).<\/p>\n
For years, stories circulated around Joplin, Missouri, about the city\u2019s homeless population and how they arrived in the city.<\/p>\n
Calls would come in to city officials following a recurring theme.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were coming to the City Council meetings and saying, \u2018I don\u2019t know why you guys don\u2019t know this, but I\u2019m witnessing busloads of people being dropped off in our town,\u2019\u201d said Joplin Mayor Keenan Cortez. \u201c\u2018Buses are coming in, stopping at gas stations, unloading and the buses are turning around and going back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The city commissioned a study to investigate. But it came back with no hard evidence.<\/p>\n
Still, the reports kept coming in. So the city took a deeper look.<\/p>\n
Officials collected video evidence of out-of-state law enforcement vehicles dropping people off at truck stops. Some medical systems seemed to be involved, too. They also gathered signed affidavits from people who were new to Joplin, saying they were given promises of a shelter bed or resources at the end of their ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were starting to hear from people in our community that, \u2018I was brought to Joplin and just dropped off. I was in trouble over there. That community didn\u2019t deal with me. They put me in a car, a van, a bus and said there\u2019s help for you,\u2019\u201d Cortez said.<\/p>\n
Instead, they were left without their support system, in a new city with limited resources and few places to turn.<\/p>\n
Cortez said city officials aren\u2019t sure how many people shared similar stories.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I don\u2019t know if it was 15, if it was 50,\u201d Cortez said. \u201cAs a mayor, it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joplin officials put their heads together with the city\u2019s legal team. After sending cease-and-desist letters to the organizations they believed were dropping people off in the city, the City Council started considering legislation to ban the practice.<\/p>\n
The City Council passed an ordinance<\/a> at the beginning of November. It isn\u2019t uncommon for medical systems to refer patients needing specialized treatment, or for victims of domestic violence, to be sent to a shelter in another town. The ordinance includes exemptions for those situations.<\/p>\n So far, Cortez and city officials think the letters and new ordinance appear to be working. They haven\u2019t had any reports of people being dropped off since the ordinance was passed. But the trend points to a larger problem Missouri\u2019s cities are facing as homelessness rises across the state.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n It is fairly common for smaller, rural areas to rely on the services in larger cities for things like shelters, medical care or mental health treatment.<\/p>\n From 2023 to 2024, the number of unsheltered people grew 9% in Missouri<\/a>, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development point-in-time counts. In Kansas<\/a>, the number grew by 6%, while Oklahoma saw an 18% jump.<\/p>\n Columbia is similar to Joplin when it comes to being a regional hub for services and shelter beds.<\/p>\n Columbia began working more closely on reducing homelessness in 2023<\/a> by establishing a program within Boone County\u2019s Department of Public Health to connect people with resources. City officials also created a homeless outreach team within the police department to try and divert people from the justice system.<\/p>\n Now, the city has launched<\/a> the Ride Home program, which gives homeless or impoverished community members free rides back to their hometowns or to support systems up to three hours away. If someone needs to travel farther, the city will purchase a bus ticket to get them to where they need to go.<\/p>\n Since the launch in October, the city has provided three rides, said Austin Krohn, public information specialist at the Columbia & Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople come in for mental health services, or if there is a facility that can only do a certain type of screening for them,\u201d Krohn said. \u201cPeople are coming here from all over Missouri to get services, and then they\u2019re stuck here.\u201d<\/p>\n Local service providers and shelters can refer people to the program to receive a free ride. People must have verifiable support at the destination, a referral, photo ID and no outstanding warrants in the county.<\/p>\n Studies have shown that voluntary transport to a support system can be instrumental in improving someone\u2019s housing situation.<\/p>\n San Francisco runs a robust transportation program, similar to Ride Home in Columbia. In fiscal year 2024, the agency<\/a> that runs the program gave 230 rides.<\/p>\n San Francisco officials followed up with riders 90 days after their ride, and found that of the 230 served, 61 found housing, while 29 had another or unknown location. The remaining riders were unreachable or declined to be surveyed as part of the program.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was doing direct service 30 years ago, people called it Greyhound therapy,\u201d said Jeff Olivet, the former executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. \u201cGet a bus ticket to another town, just get out of here, basically. Sometimes that can be incredibly helpful if people are really wanting and needing to get back to family and social supports.\u201d<\/p>\n But if someone is transported or coerced to leave town against their will, it can lead to poorer outcomes, Olivet said.<\/p>\n \u201cTransportation can be critical,\u201d Olivet said. \u201cBut if it\u2019s basically, \u2018Get out of town or we\u2019re going to arrest you,\u2019 that doesn\u2019t solve homelessness for anybody. It just moves the problem around.\u201d<\/p>\n One 2023<\/a> study modeled over 20 U.S. cities concluded that involuntary displacement of people experiencing homelessness \u2014 things like encampment sweeps or involuntary transport to another area \u2014 could lead to substantial increases in morbidity and mortality.<\/p>\n The study linked involuntary displacement with worse outcomes for overdoses and hospitalizations and a decrease in getting connected with treatment for opioid use. It said the displacements could contribute to deaths of homeless people who use drugs.<\/p>\n A 2017 investigation<\/a> from The Guardian analyzed nearly 35,000 relocation journeys over a six-year period. The investigation found that most riders were relocated to places with a lower median income.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n And as homelessness rates rise across all of Missouri, cities may need to start thinking about how to address these gaps, Olivet said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the case of rural areas, or even suburban areas, where there aren\u2019t as many shelter options for people, there aren\u2019t as many mental health treatment programs, there aren\u2019t as many supportive services. Oftentimes, the only way to get help is by going to a larger urban area,\u201d Olivet said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat speaks to a tremendous gap when we don\u2019t have good services, support and housing options for people in rural areas. They have to go somewhere else, even if they are from that rural area.\u201d<\/p>\n In Missouri, the numbers aren\u2019t improving.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s continuum of care \u2014 a group of agencies that work under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address homelessness \u2014 found in its most recent report<\/a> that homelessness is rapidly increasing across the state.<\/p>\n In Region 9, which includes the southwest corner of the state (but does not include metro areas like Joplin or Springfield, which run their own continuums of care outside of the statewide framework), 2023 data found a 133% rise in unsheltered homelessness and a 100% rise in sheltered homelessness from 2022 to 2023.<\/p>\n The area also saw family homelessness increase by 100% from 2022 to 2023.<\/p>\n Region 10, which represents the counties surrounding the Kansas City area, 2023 point-in-time data showed a 3% increase in unsheltered homelessness and a 119% increase in sheltered homelessness from 2022. Family homelessness increased by 173%.<\/p>\n In the group\u2019s annual report, every region saw at least one metric of homelessness, sheltered or unsheltered, increase from 2022 to 2023.<\/p>\n It rings alarm bells with Mary Kenion, the chief equity officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness.<\/p>\n \u201cAt least half of all people experiencing homelessness in largely rural continuums of care do so outdoors, in unsheltered locations,\u201d Kenion said. \u201cWe\u2019re also seeing family homelessness on the rise, in rural communities specifically.\u201d<\/p>\n And in their report, the Missouri continuum of care providers noted that while larger towns were better equipped to handle homelessness, it highlights the lack of resources in more rural areas.<\/p>\n The report found a positive relationship between the number of beds available in permanent housing situations and the length of time someone was homeless. For every 1% increase in permanent housing beds, there was a 54-day decrease in the length of time someone was homeless.<\/p>\n Although solutions like access to permanent housing show promise, roadblocks remain.<\/p>\n A coalition of nonprofits and local governments recently sued<\/a> the Trump administration, arguing it created unreasonable restrictions on state continuums of care across the country. The lawsuit argues that the administration is looking to shift funding away<\/a> from proven solutions that improve homelessness and that it could force up to 170,000 Americans into homelessness.<\/p>\n The new rules change what types of projects are eligible for funding through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the criteria for selecting projects and the conditions grantees have to accept to receive the funding, the lawsuit argues.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Joplin Mayor Cortez and other experts said that following up with someone after they receive care or resources is key in reducing homelessness.<\/p>\n Cortez is excited about a new development of 16 tiny homes dedicated to providing permanent housing situations for Joplin. But addressing the issue takes everyone coming together, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an ongoing thing that everybody in the community is involved in \u2014\u2013 the health care community, the religious community,\u201d Cortez said. \u201cWe have some passionate champions in our community working to resolve this problem.\u201d<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on Beacon: Missouri<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>. Officials collected video evidence of out-of-state law enforcement vehicles dropping people off at truck stops. Some medical systems seemed to be involved, too (Naomi O’Donnell\/The Beacon). For years, stories circulated around Joplin, Missouri, about the city\u2019s homeless population and how they arrived in the city. Calls would come in to city officials following a recurring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMissouri\u2019s reliance on larger cities for services\u00a0for the homeless population<\/h4>\n
How Missouri fares\u00a0<\/h4>\n
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