The current debate raging over a proposed county homeless shelter at a repurposed Lenexa hotel has echoes of a legal battle the city had over a previous homeless shelter. On Monday night, a Lenexa Planning Commission meeting centered around a Special Use Permit to turn the site of a La Quinta Inn and former Denny’s into a county homeless shelter featured frequent references to a previous controversy over Project 1020, the only other homeless shelter in the city serving single adults. “I love our city and county, but I think we’ve turned a blind eye to our homeless for way too long,” Greg Hack, a Lenexa resident and board member of Shawnee Mission Unitarian Universalist Church, which houses Project 1020, said during the meeting. “I’m sure you all remember it required a lawsuit by one small, brave church to get the city to even allow Project 1020 (to happen).” The federal lawsuit, filed by the church in 2019 against the city, kept Project 1020 in operation and ultimately led to the city instituting new zoning rules for homeless shelters. The shelter still operates out of the church on Pflumm Road in Old Town Lenexa during the winter months. Monday’s much-watched meeting about the new shelter resulted in the commission unanimously voting 9-0 to recommend the denial of the special use permit. That recommendation was based on several reasons articulated by city staff, including worries that the shelter did not fit the character of the surrounding area, would negatively impact nearby residences and businesses and potentially be a drain on city resources.
Source: Johnson County Post
