The Wyandotte County Unified Government Board of Commissioners voted 7-1 early Thursday morning to reject a proposed ordinance that would have banned “unlawful camping” on public property, following more than four hours of impassioned testimony from residents, service providers, and business owners.

The ordinance, which emerged with unanimous approval from the Public Works & Safety Standing Committee, would have prohibited sleeping or camping on public or private property with penalties up to $200 in fines or 30 days in jail. It drew fierce opposition from homeless advocates who argued it criminalized poverty without addressing root causes, while local business owners supported it as a necessary public safety tool.

Commissioner Tom Burroughs, who chairs the committee that advanced the ordinance, defended the intent while acknowledging community concerns. “”This ordinance has been requested about couple two or three years ago through not only some of the members of the task force,” said the long-time state lawmaker, “but with a group of individual business leaders across the downtown area that were concerned about the impact on their businesses…Doing nothing is not the answer.”

Aaron Ward, director of security for Security Bank at 7th Street and Minnesota Ave., painted a vivid picture of how the homeless affect his downtown KCK employer. “We spend over six figures a year on security at our building with a midnight shift and a day shift to try to make it as safe as possible,” Ward testified. “Panhandling, loitering, masturbation, sex, prostitution, open air drug use — we encounter that stuff on an everyday basis. I don’t think that’s fair for us as a business.”

“You don’t have the right to defecate in public,” Ward continued. “You don’t have the right to urinate in public. You don’t have the right to have prostitution in public or sex in public. You don’t have the right to masturbate in public. And those are all things that we endure at our business.”

“There’s 20 of them living around my building right now that I can bring to social services that truly need help. So when I say that, I’m talking about people who are no way can function in society right now. And they’ve proven that time and time and time again.”

Ward emphasized he wasn’t seeking mass arrests. “I have compassion for them. I don’t think they want to be there any more than I want them to be there in the first place. I know that for a fact. So what is my recourse?”

Jessica Smith, McKinney-Vento (homeless services) liaison for USD 500, who works with over 250 homeless families and students emphasized the potential effect on her charges. “This ordinance will cause the families that I spoke of more trauma,” said Smith.

“The families that are already in such a horrible place. Now the children will see their parents get arrested causing more trauma to place them into a [Kansas Department for Children and Families] foster system that is already incredibly broken.”

Rachel Russell, a community advocate, challenged the effectiveness of the ordinance. “Research and court rulings have consistently shown that enforcement-focused approaches — ticketing, arresting, and incarceration—do not resolve homelessness. In fact, they often make it worse. Decades of data demonstrate a simple but critical truth: Housing ends homelessness.”

Mayor Tyrone Garner, who created the task force on homelessness four years ago, acknowledged the complexity of the issue in his remarks. “I don’t know the cause of it. I don’t know why homelessness and poverty continues to grow in this country,” Garner said. “But listening to these mayors, I can tell you there’s a stalemate. Nobody has a real solution to this problem because it comes back to the human condition: mental illness.”

Commissioner Andrew Davis raised concerns about the process that brought the ordinance forward. “I wish this information was presented to the standing committee in collaboration with you and all the other providers so that we had kind of a more robust discussion and a more balanced perspective on what we are discussing tonight,” Davis said, addressing Tom Lally, chairman of the homeless task force.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez offered an impassioned statement against the ordinance: “Our houseless neighbors are still human beings and they are still residents of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas. They are part of our community. They are parents, veterans, youth who have aged out of foster care, workers who have fallen on hard times, and individuals who struggle with health challenges. Passing an ordinance that criminalizes their mere existence in public spaces does not address the root causes of homelessness.”

Data presented by staff showed the scope of the crisis: 252 people were counted as experiencing homelessness in Wyandotte County during the January 2025 point-in-time count, with 115 of them unsheltered. The county has no year-round homeless shelter, relying instead on a cold-weather shelter that opens only when temperatures drop to 25 degrees or below.

Nehemiah Rosell, from the Greater Kansas City Coalition to End Homelessness, questioned the ordinance’s logic. “My additional research has shown that there’s about that many people who are unsheltered in Wyandotte County. Looking at the data deeper, 36% of them reported having income or being employed. And I think that really speaks to the fact that homelessness is a housing problem,” Rosell testified. “I ask this commission: for those 170 plus people who are unsheltered, if they’re told they can’t be outside, where are they supposed to go?”

After the lengthy discussion, Commissioner Phil Lopez made a motion to send the ordinance back to committee, which initially failed 4-4. Garner then moved to deny the ordinance outright, which passed 7-1, with only Commissioner Bill Burns voting no.

The mayor announced he would direct the task force to reconvene within 30 days, including police department representation, business community voices, service providers, and people experiencing homelessness.

“It’s not something the government can solve. It’s not something one social service group can solve or businesses,” Garner said. “It’s going to take a collective of the willing in our community to come up with these real solutions.”

In other business, the commission voted 7-1 to authorize up to $30 million in tax increment bonds for the Homefield Village East development, with a controversial provision extending the timeline for a required $4.35 million community investment east of I-635 from 6 months to 24 months. The commission also recognized several Hispanic Heritage Month honorees and proclaimed Oct. 4 as Junius George Groves Day, honoring the pioneering black Edwardsville farmer and businessman known as the “Potato King of the World.”

The commission postponed a decision on raising the Transient Guest Tax (hotel tax) until its Nov. 6 meeting.

The meeting adjourned after 1 a.m. Commissioner Gayle Townsend was absent and had submitted a memo to the commission requesting the absence.