Bowersock Mills and Power Company owner Sarah Hill-Nelson manages hydroelectric power plant facilities on both sides of the Kansas River in downtown Lawrence where homeless people struggling with mental illness and addiction tend to congregate. Some that she encountered arrived from other cities — specifically Hiawatha, Melvern, Leavenworth and Topeka, she said — after told Lawrence was a haven for unhoused people. Hill-Nelson said others were apparently given bus tickets to Lawrence by officials in communities eager to rid themselves of troublesome residents. The result has been a public safety crisis in Lawrence that surpassed the city’s ability to deliver housing, treatment and services to the homeless population, she said. “I’ve even heard about people who kinda laugh, ‘The liberal people in Lawrence, it’s kind of funny, let them deal with it,’” she told an House and Senate committee studying homelessness on Thursday. “It’s not that funny, because these people are suffering. Lawrence simply cannot handle all the Kansans suffering from substance use disorder and mental illness.”
Source: Derby Informer | News
