Next week, Joplin residents, city council members, and staff will receive an update on the issue of homelessness in the city.
KRPS’s Fred Fletcher-Fierro has more.
Carol Wick, President of the international consulting firm Charity will be in Joplin Monday night providing an update on the strategic plan to fight homelessness.
It’s been nearly one year since the Joplin city council approved to contract with Charity to provide a thorough, unbiased, independent assessment of homelessness in Joplin, and Ms. Wick will provide her company's final assessment of the situation.
Part of Ms. Wick’s presentation will include homelessness myths and facts. For instance, the myth is that unhoused people are dropped by bus in Joplin. Charity has found that service providers move clients and homeless individuals to where services are available and beds are open.
Also, of the 645 unhoused individuals counted by Charity in Joplin 460 are children, including 40 youth without families.
One challenge that Charity has uncovered is that data regardless of homelessness in Joplin is not centralized and not fully coordinated making it difficult to fully access the problem and how widespread it is.
The Joplin city council meeting gets underway Monday night at 6.
Copyright 2024 Four States Public Radio. To see more, visit Four States Public Radio.
