Reduction in homeless shelter capacity raises question: Where can people legally sleep?

For Lawrence’s homeless with nowhere to go at night, their new beds consist of a park gazebo, the dry concrete next to a building or a patch of ground along the Kansas River. Others opt not to sleep at all.

“Some walk the streets to stay awake, for safety, because they don’t want to lie down to go to sleep,” said Loring Henderson, director of a downtown drop-in center for the homeless at 10th and Kentucky streets. Those homeless people, Henderson said, opt to take short naps during the day because they fear being assaulted or having their possessions stolen if they sleep out in the open at night.