Thursday was the coldest day so far in 2025, serving as a stark reminder that Johnson County lacks a comprehensive emergency weather plan when temperatures drop dangerously low and those without housing have nowhere to turn.
A handful of places serve as official or unofficial warming centers in the county, places that those experiencing housing insecurity can go to find refuge when the temperature plummets. These include public library branches and a smattering of public community centers.
But those places can be closed during bad weather — as many of them did earlier this week — or on holidays, leaving unhoused individuals with even fewer places to turn when temperatures drop to life-threatening lows.
Local government leaders and housing advocates say Johnson County should have more plans in place to meet the needs of its most vulnerable residents during extreme weather like what the Kansas City area has seen this week.
It’s an issue tied up inextricably with the county’s ongoing efforts at addressing homelessness more broadly.
‘I’d probably be froze to death’
When temperatures drop — as they have this week — to dangerous lows, it can be a matter of life and death for individuals who have nowhere to turn.
And there’s only one truly low-barrier shelter for single adults in Johnson County that can take people who are housing insecure in an emergency: Project 1020, located in an Old Town Lenexa church.
Barb McEver, who co-founded Project 1020, said she has seen “several cases of frostbite” this year, with some individuals requiring hospitalization.
“Many don’t [survive] if they can’t find shelter,” McEver said. “That is someone who is truly in such desperation. They don’t know what to do.”
Project 1020 is only open at nights.
There are other public places in Johnson County open during the day that can serve as warming centers, but those options can dwindle, especially on days when conditions are made worse by snow and ice, or when there’s a holiday, and many public spaces close.
Johnson County Library branches, for instance, are among the few public spaces available as warm refuges during cold snaps, but on Tuesday this week, the library system closed because of a winter storm.
For William Coleman, a man who has been homeless in Johnson County for several months, the implications are serious.
“I don’t know where I’d be without them right now. I’d probably be froze to death,” he told the Post while staying at Project 1020 on a cold night in January.
This week, Project 1020 won Lenexa’s approval to host 50 people each night, up from 30.
Those extra slots still meet less than a quarter of the known need, officials say, since last year’s Point-in-Time count on the homeless population reported 250 people experiencing homelessness.
“On any given night, there’s more people than the shelter system has capacity for,” said Rita Carr, director of community planning for United Community Services of Johnson County.
Other places that offer shelter restrict their space to focus only on families and single women, or emphasize transitional housing in their efforts and are not meant to be places to go in emergencies.
JoCo needs a weather plan, community leaders say
McEver said Johnson County needs some kind of emergency weather activation plan designed to help people find housing or shelter during extreme temperatures.
Such a countywide plan could mirror the cold-weather emergency plan in place in Kansas City, Missouri, which lays out extra shelter beds that can be activated citywide if the temperature falls below freezing.
“It’s unbelievable that Johnson County doesn’t have some sort of an emergency preparedness situation,” McEver said.
Carr at UCS also thinks a formalized backup plan that would designate certain places as emergency warming centers would be beneficial.
“Ideally, it would be part of our emergency management plan that when temperatures are at this level,” she said, “we would have a plan for locations that are going to open up when other locations are closed.”
However, Johnson County, unlike Kansas City, is not a single jurisdiction, but a county made up of more than a dozen municipalities, which advocates says hinders collaboration on countywide solutions to deal with the issue.
That’s placed the burden for now on a few volunteers in places like Project 1020, McEver said.
On the coldest days this winter, they’ve wondered what they’re going to do at 8:01 a.m., when their special use permit dictates that they have to send shelter patrons they’re sheltering out for the day, regardless of the temperature.
At the same time, while local officials and community leaders agree something has to be done, there’s little consensus beyond that about what exactly is the next best step or whose job it is to take the lead.
“I think we need a plan, and we need the community to step up and be part of finding solutions for this issue,” County Commissioner Janeé Hanzlick said. “Nobody wants to see our neighbors freezing and their lives being at risk in this cold weather.”
County is looking for community partners
Hanzlick says the responsibility falls on the whole community, not just the county government or a few scattered volunteers.
“It’s a community-wide issue,” she said, “so it requires a community-wide solution, and the county certainly can be part of that solution, but the county doesn’t have the staffing, the resources, to set that up on an ongoing basis.”
Recently, Johnson County government and United Community Services of Johnson County partnered on a pilot program with Overland Park Christian Church on New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day to offer a warming center when public spaces like libraries were closed for the holiday.
About 25 people used the warming center at the church on those days it was available, Hanzlick said.
“Our hope is that a community group or a group of maybe faith leaders could take the lead and continue with this model,” she said.
Hanzlick said she hasn’t seen much of an appetite for that beyond what’s already being done by a few organizations like Project 1020 and other groups.
“We really need additional community partners to step forward,” she said.
Homelessness is the root of the problem
Even so, Hanzlick thinks the county has made strides recently in trying to address the issue of homelessness, which is tied to the issue of overnight shelters and warming centers.
Mayor John Bacon of Olathe agreed the issue is “complex” and that it will take “collaboration and community-wide solutions” to address.
“We’re grateful to the community partners we’ve been working with for many years to support one of our most vulnerable populations,” Bacon said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with our partners throughout Johnson County about the most effective ways to bring a high quality of life to all of our residents.”
Last year, an attempt to use federal pandemic relief dollars to create a Homeless Services Center at an old hotel off Interstate 35 in Lenexa was scuttled when the Lenexa City Council rejected the requisite special use permit.
Nonetheless, during her annual State of the City address earlier this week, Lenexa Mayor Julie Sayers said homelessness is still top of mind in Lenexa.
“We have all learned so much from this process and remain committed to working with all the relevant stakeholders in Johnson County to find a countywide solution to the problem of homelessness that works for everyone,” she said.
But, Hanzlick said, had that homeless shelter project ultimately panned out as the county had planned, it would have gone a long way to addressing long-term the problems housing-insecure populations deal with.
It also may have lessened the need for stop-gap measures like warming centers or overnight shelters during this week’s cold snap.
“It would help those folks get off the street into a safe shelter and get the services to help them become more economically stable and have a permanent place to live,” she said.
Kyle Palmer and Andrew Gaug contributed reporting to this story.
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