Five activists braved the chilling wind in downtown Kansas City, Kansas, Wednesday morning to protest a new ordinance in Wyandotte County that could result in fines or even jail time for people sleeping under bridges and local overpasses.
“It’s inhumane,” said Carrington Allen, founder of AIM Ministries, a nonprofit that serves the KC metro. “It feels like a punishment to those who are already suffering, who are already given the short end of the stick in life… We need to have a more restorative approach than one that takes down and tears down.”
The Unified Government Board of Commissioners approved the ordinance last week in a 6-2 vote, which bans people, including those experiencing homelessness, from “unsafe” camping on public and private properties in the county. Commissioners Melissa Bynum, District 1 at-large, and Andrew Davis, District 8, dissented…