The City of Lenexa’s governing body is looking at the possibility of expanding a cold weather homeless shelter’s capacity by 20 people.
Project 1020, the only cold-weather homeless shelter operating in Lenexa (and in Johnson County as a whole) has asked the city to allow it to house more overnight guests in order to meet a growing demand of people without a place to stay.
The shelter operates under a certificate of occupancy, housed by Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church in Old Town.
Three years ago, the city changed its code to allow shelters like Project 1020 to operate as an accessory use by a church or place of worship. During Tuesday’s committee meeting, the Lenexa City Council discussed amending that code to raise the capacity of cold-weather homeless shelters operating as accessory uses for churches or places of worship in the city from 30 people to 50.
Project 1020 has already gone over occupancy, accepting more guests than it’s allowed under city code, according to city documents. Lenexa’s proposal to allow the shelter to house more guests overnight would also come with stricter enforcement of the city code, as well as penalties for violation.
While Project 1020 is the city’s only homeless shelter, city staff said they wanted to be sure it wasn’t just targeting them. It wanted to consider all places of worship that could open a homeless shelter in the future.
“Any amendments we make to the code are going to be applied to all of those eligible churches,” said Scott McCullough, Lenexa’s community development director.
No vote was taken during the committee meeting. While councilmembers Chelsea Williamson and Melanie Arroyo were absent, City Manager Beccy Yocham noted that both of them have said they want to see discussions on the matter continue.

The amendment would change shelter rules
Established in 2021, current rules on the books for cold weather shelters in Lenexa include:
- Any place of worship with a shelter operating as a accessory can accept up to 10 guests any time of the year.
- During the winter months, churches that are at least 30,000 square feet in size and within a half-mile of public transportation or have access to transportation can operate as a cold weather shelter for up to 30 occupants from Dec. 1 to April 1.
- Those shelters must have two staff members for the first 10 guests and one additional staff member for every 10 guests after that.
The amended changes would also change the rules, including:
- Shelters with a maximum of 50 people would be required to have at least four people on staff.
- Shelters and their home churches that violate occupancy numbers would face a civic penalty: revocation of their Certificate of Occupancy for up to 1 year for multiple violations.
- The occupancy violation rule comes because of Project 1020’s history of going over its 30-person limit.
“They pretty regularly exceed their occupancy limit,” McCullough said.
The city notes other churches could participate
While the amendment comes at the request of Project 1020, other places of worship in the area could open their own shelters.
The city established its code for cold weather homeless shelters with the intention of dispersing homeless shelter needs among eligible churches, trying to strike a balance between addressing the need for those churches desiring to shelter people experiencing homelessness and mitigating the impacts a homeless shelter could bring to surrounding areas, McCullough said.
During his presentation, McCullough said eight churches in Lenexa, including Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church, meet the requirements to operate as a cold weather shelter.
Several times throughout the meeting, multiple people, including city leaders, noted that none of those mentioned churches expressed interest in operating a shelter.
“We reached out to all those churches (in Lenexa), asking if they would be interested in providing shelter … to shelter up to 10 people, and no one is interested. They’re all interested in helping us, but no one is interested in doing it in their facility,” said Barb McEver, Project 1020 co-founder.

The committee had mixed feelings on changes
Giving their feedback, city councilmembers shared mixed emotions.
The changes were fair, Councilmember Craig Denny said.
“I’m on board with the idea that we look at it and we look at it fully,” he said. “I think it’s important that we do it in a way that is consistent among all churches … Not just Project 1020, but anybody who it might cover so that we’re fair and consistent across the board.”
While he praised Project 1020 and wasn’t against the changes, Councilmember Mark Charlton said looking at the timeline for the amendment changes, with its next step being presented to the Lenexa Planning Commission on Feb. 3, it might be moving too fast.
Charlton wanted to take a step back and look at what effect a shelter’s increased capacity would have on other businesses and the surrounding neighborhood.
In response, Mayor Julie Sayers noted that the changes have been discussed before and other churches have had a chance to respond and haven’t.
“We’ve been through this twice, and the public will be 50-50 split, just like they have been both times that we played through this,” she said. “Kicking the can to get public input will only yield that same result, I fear.
“So we need to provide staff with some direction about what should come to the planning commission and allow whomever finds out about it through our normal e-mail process the ability to come to that public hearing just like they would any other thing.”

Councilmember worried about making area ‘a magnet’
Disagreeing with other councilmembers, Councilmember Bill Nicks viewed the plan as a bad idea. Instead of expanding the number of people experiencing homelessness which Project 1020 can accept, the city should focus on occupancy enforcement.
“You’ve done good work here in Lenexa for five years now,” Nicks said to McEver. ” I think you serve sort of as a magnet. The word’s out, I think, that you can get homeless services at 95th and Pflumm. I don’t think the follow up clause, but they limit it to 30, is ever mentioned.”
He added: “I think the word needs to be out, and it sounds like you’re really trying to get it out that, yes, there’s homeless services at 95th and Pflumm, but the limit’s 30, and 1020 is holding to that limit of 30 because they don’t want to lose their permit.”
Nicks also feared that the increase in occupancy to homeless shelters could have negative effects on surrounding neighborhoods.
“Keep it at 30,” Nicks said. “I don’t think we should be talking about it because we aren’t adhering to the current standards, and I apologize, and hate to say that because, Barb, you do wonderful work, and it is a bigger problem than Lenexa. But it seems like we are the magnet, and now we’re asking to put more guests in the neighborhood, and (there’s) no telling what those unquantifiable types of impacts are.”
What’s next
The amendment is up for a public hearing item at the Lenexa Planning Commission’s Feb. 3. meeting.
After that, the Lenexa City Council would take it up for a vote during its Feb. 18 meeting.