Month: May 2021

Proposal would provide identification cards to homeless persons in KCK

A program that would provide identification cards to homeless persons in the community was discussed Monday by Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department officials.

Deputy Chief Pam Waldeck with several police officials described the program, which is modeled on one currently in operation in Topeka, Kansas.

The police outreach team, in coordination with Cross-Lines Community outreach, identified a need, the difficulty that unsheltered people here have in getting identification cards, according to police officials.

Under the proposed program, identification cards would be issued by the Police Department and would be valid for one year. Police would verify the identity of persons applying for the cards.

After receiving the cards, it will make it easier for individuals to get a state identification card, increasing their access to medical care and financial services, according to police officials. The state will work with the police department’s identification card if the local program closely follows the Topeka program.

Without a state identification card, a birth certificate or Social Security card, it might be difficult or impossible for people to access their bank accounts, difficult to get a job, difficult to get a place to live and difficult to access prescriptions, according to police officials. Many homeless people do not have access to the documents necessary to obtain a state identification card, police officials said.

Some may have been through challenging times, losing identification in a home fire, or possibly identification was stolen or lost.

Currently, there are about 350 persons experiencing homelessness in Wyandotte County that the police department is aware of, and probably there are more than that estimate, according to police officials.

Cross-Lines and the Frank Williams Center are interested in scheduling remote application days for the homeless, according to police officials.

The cost of the program was estimated at $1,500 to $2,200, with the cost per year of maintaining it at about $100, police officials said. Officers in the COPPS unit are working with the homeless regularly and it was estimated they may spend one to two hours per person to confirm identity.

Commissioner Christian Ramirez said while he had an initial apprehension toward the program, he now is in support of it.

The program is different from the municipal ID program that Commissioners Ramirez, Melissa Bynum and Harold Johnson are working on, he said. The community municipal ID program would be open to a wider part of the community.

This program is very narrowly targeted for the homeless, he added.

The police department program would not be available for undocumented residents, according to Deputy Chief Waldeck.

Commissioner Johnson said this program is desperately needed. He is in favor of continuing the effort for municipal ID for undocumented residents, also.

Commissioner Bynum said she was not against the police department identification program, but her concern would be that there could be confusion when they get a broader community identification program started.

Deputy Chief Waldeck confirmed that the police department program does not require approval from the UG Commission to move forward, although the community ID program for undocumented residents requires approval.

Commissioner Bynum also asked if there had been any discussion about the program with new Police Chief Karl Oakman, who will start his job in around three weeks.

Deputy Chief Waldeck said while they have not talked with him about it yet, they are planning on discussing it with him. It will take a few weeks to move forward with the details of the program.

Commissioner Johnson asked Deputy Chief Waldeck to wait until the new police chief starts his job, and to get his opinion before rolling it out.

No action on the police ID program was taken at the Unified Government Public Works and Safety Committee meeting; the UG Commission will not be required to approve it.

Revisions to stormwater, wastewater and sewer ordinance

In other action, the Public Works and Safety Committee voted unanimously to approve an ordinance with revisions to the UG’s stormwater, wastewater and sewer ordinance. It amends the ordinance and creates nine new sections.

The UG has been under a consent decree with the EPA since 2013, and some changes were made to the plan in March. Many of the changes were minor and clarify language in the local ordinance. Some other changes were made to enhance enforcement, according to the UG. There were details added concerning the fat oils and grease program for food service facilities.

This ordinance next goes to the full Commission for final approval. The proposed changes are on the meeting agenda at https://civicclerk.blob.core.windows.net/stream/WYCOKCK/1ada1269ce.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=mMZgu8gRlTFz2GaUyBQTDap4wiEWAgw66qFt1eJiNKU%3D&st=2021-05-25T20%3A47%3A46Z&se=2022-05-25T20%3A52%3A46Z&sp=r&rscc=no-cache&rsct=application%2Fpdf.

Public hearing to be July 29 on Community Development budget

At the UG’s Administration and Human Services Committee meeting Monday night, the committee approved setting a public hearing for the Community Development annual action plan on July 29. The action plan is scheduled to be voted on by the UG Commission on July 29, after the public hearing.

Wilba Miller, director of Community Development, outlined the Community Development programs including the block grant program, which is budgeted for $3.36 million in 2021 and $2.32 million in 2022. She discussed the Home Investment Partnership Program and the Emergency Solutions Grant. She also discussed the Lead-Based Paint Grant, CARES Act funding to the CDBG and ESG programs, and American Rescue Plan funding for the Home grant program.

The Community Development budget is being approved at a different time this year than the UG budget.

The plan and the Community Development programs budget are online as part of the AHS Committee agenda at https://civicclerk.blob.core.windows.net/stream/WYCOKCK/15733c8e8d.pdf?sv=2015-12-11&sr=b&sig=IzysLLS3zYxWApbxfct9i8NYHeJT1ePo0Gl%2BDRpVyGA%3D&st=2021-05-25T21%3A03%3A58Z&se=2022-05-25T21%3A08%3A58Z&sp=r&rscc=no-cache&rsct=application%2Fpdf.

The committee meetings are on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4AC44IY8KI.

Republican push urging Kansas governor to end federal unemployment benefits stumbles for now

Republicans are pushing Gov. Kelly to eliminate the $300 additional weekly unemployment payments because they say the money makes it harder to fill open jobs.

by Abigail Censky, KCUR and Kansas News Service

The push by Republicans to end the $300 dollar per week additional federal unemployment payment in Kansas reached a peak last week with a letter signed by 200 groups calling on the governor to eliminate the benefit.

But there was one problem: leaders of some of those groups say they never agreed to sign the letter.

It was a stumble in what has been a coordinated effort by Republicans to urge the Democratic governor to end the payments. The GOP and business groups argue the larger unemployment payments are keeping workers at home and making it harder to fill jobs.

“They’re on a mission to remove the weekly $300 enhanced unemployment benefit,” House Democratic Leader Tom Sawyer said in a statement.

The fight began in earnest three weeks ago when Gov. Mike Parson from neighboring Missouri announced the state would opt out of the additional unemployment insurance benefits beginning June 12.

The same day, U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, introduced a plan to roll back federal unemployment benefits to $150 per week by the end of May and completely end the benefits by the end of June.

“I can guarantee you,” Marshall told Cheddar News, “(Employees are) getting paid more to stay home than go back to work.”

Since then 22 states have announced they’ll end federal benefits by early July.

In a letter sent to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly this week, all of the Republicans in the Kansas congressional delegation argued that continuing federal benefits through September “provides a lucrative government incentive to stay home despite clear signs that the economy is recovering and life is trending toward normal.”

The coordinated attempt to cajole Kelly into dropping the benefits early ran into an unforced error last Thursday when it was revealed a letter signed by nearly 200 groups featured organizations that had unwittingly been added by lower-level employees. Those groups included a library and the Greater Wichita YMCA.

The letter had previously been touted in a statement by Republican leadership in the state House as evidence that Kelly “continues to hold Kansas back.”

But Kelly has, so far, demurred to the pleas from her Republican counterparts.

“We have not really made a final decision on that issue. It is something we are exploring,” she said to reporters last week.

“There is conflicting anecdotal data right now,” she said, “and I need to just study the issue.”

The April report from the Kansas Department of Labor shows unemployment in the state has gone down from 3.7% in March to 3.5% in April. That’s down from one year ago at the height of the pandemic when it was 12.6%.

“Great progress is being made as we are approaching pre-pandemic unemployment rates,” Kansas Department of Labor Secretary Amber Schultz said in a statement.

Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat from Hutchinson, was called by the Wichita YMCA, the Hutchison library and a local roofing company who initially didn’t know how they were added to the letter asking the governor to roll back federal benefits.

Probst said the letter from the congressional delegation, powerful business groups and the statement from House Republicans “seems like a very coordinated thing to me.”

Probst said he doesn’t doubt some local businesses are having trouble finding workers, but he suspects that could be a direct result of low or stagnant wages.

“That’s the root of the problem,” he said. “I don’t think it’s federal benefits.”

Jeremy Hill, the director of the Center for Economic Development and Business Research at Wichita State University, said Kansas does have a wage problem.

“Kansas has had a problem over the last decade,” Hill said, “where wages on average were not increasing at the rate of the national level.”

Hill said that caused some people to move out of state, and the base of available workers became smaller, which made for a tight labor market even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, there are multiple factors that complicate whether employers are able to fill jobs and whether employees are able to find a job that fits the demands and expenses of their lifestyle.

Unlike the Great Recession, workers displaced from jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic aren’t returning to the same jobs. Even if they’re able to return to work, they may be limited by caretaking or lack of child care.

“We haven’t added a lot of jobs from a year ago,” he said. “But we’ve added a lot more people in the labor market looking for a job than a year ago.”

Abigail Censky is the political reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @AbigailCensky or email her at abigailcensky (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/government/2021-05-21/republican-push-urging-kansas-governor-to-end-federal-unemployment-benefits-stumbled-this-week-but-isnt-over.