Unity Southeast, which has operated a homeless shelter for six years, says it may face a sharp rise in demand for overnight beds this weekend as dangerously cold temperatures approach. Rev. Randy Fikki says attendance could climb well above the church's typical 30 to 40 people, while the shelter lacks the funding and city coordination to serve everyone who may arrive.
According to KSHB 41, Unity Southeast operates on a first-come, first-served basis. “We will go from 30-40, to 80-100,” Fikki said, describing the kind of surge the church has seen before when temperatures drop. He said the resources needed to meet that demand have not kept pace.
Fikki said the church is still waiting on city funding and that, as of KSHB's report, there was no active emergency plan for where unhoused people would go during the freezing weather. He questioned why a plan was not already in place and warned that each additional bed could be critical to someone's survival, according to the station.
Projected Beds Do Not Resolve the Immediate Need
Kansas City is expected to make roughly 400 shelter beds available in the coming weeks, KSHB reported. Fikki said that timeline does not address Unity Southeast's immediate needs, with cold weather approaching before those additional beds are confirmed to be open. He warned that the delay could cost lives if people have nowhere to go in the interim.
KSHB 41 reported that it asked the city of Kansas City for details on funding and emergency winter shelter planning. A city spokesperson said late Thursday that they would get back to the station, but no further response was included in the station's reporting.
A Shelter System Still Catching Up to Demand
Kansas City has made winter shelter plans in previous seasons, but those plans do not establish current availability. In October 2023, the City Council approved spending $1.3 million on an extreme weather plan for unhoused residents, with Unity Southeast, Hope Faith and True Light set to stay open nightly from December through early March, as reported by KCUR. A later city plan called for up to 400 beds across eight metro locations from November through the end of March, pending available funding, according to The Kansas City Star.
By last December, the picture had improved on paper: the city reported a total of 931 shelter beds available across Kansas City, more than double the 460 beds available the winter before, the Star reported. And in March, the city's Houseless Prevention Coordinator said use of low-barrier resources through the Zero KC program had jumped 78% year over year, KCUR reported, as officials moved to extend emergency cold-weather access to some shelters year-round.
Homelessness counts can also have limits: a count taken on one night is not a measure of everyone who may need shelter throughout the year.
What Past Bed Counts and Homelessness Data Show
For a separate winter season, The Beacon reported that Kansas City's cold-weather shelter strategy provided space for 450 people the prior winter and increased to 500 beds in 2024. Those figures describe past plans, not beds confirmed for this weekend. Separately, KCUR reported that the City Council approved funding in August 2024 for a low-barrier, year-round overnight shelter at Hope Faith; that decision does not confirm capacity for the current cold snap. The Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness describes the annual Point-in-Time count as a one-night snapshot of people in shelters, transitional housing or places not meant for human habitation, typically conducted in the last 10 days of January. It can offer a snapshot of homelessness, but does not count everyone experiencing it throughout the year.
Church Asks for Coats and Warm Clothing
In the meantime, Fikki is asking the community to help fill the gap directly. He has requested donations of coats, sweaters and other warm clothing, and said anything given to Unity Southeast would be delivered to people who need it as the cold weather arrives. For a shelter that has spent six years serving the city's most vulnerable residents, the ask this week is as immediate as the forecast: get warm clothing to people who need it, because the beds and the plan may not arrive in time.
