Logan Harvill reporter
The non-profit organization, reStart, is in the process of repurposing a La Quinta hotel in Lenexa, KS into a homeless center. reStart assists individuals at risk of and experiencing homelessness through prevention, straight outreach, and by providing temporary and permanent housing. reStart also provides clinical and unemployment services to unhoused individuals with their goal being to provide an exit from homelessness. reStart CEO, Stephanie Boyer, believes Johnson County has been making strides to help the unhoused in the community.
Boyer stated: “Johnson County has been on a journey for the last five years or so; they completed a housing study in 2021 which led to a study specifically about homelessness which yielded a final report in 2023. Capturing this data, it was ultimately recommended that a shelter with the capacity of around fifty people year-round was needed in Johnson County.” Repurposing a hotel became the most viable option to accommodate the recommended capacity. Johnson County worked with United Community Services to create a request for proposal (RFP) process to select a provider and operator of the La Quinta. reStart was selected as the owner and operator of the project.
This is not reStart’s first large project. reStart operates a family shelter, a shelter for singles, and a youth emergency shelter in the state of Missouri along with providing transitional and permanent housing programs. reStart has decades of experience assisting unhoused communities.
“reStart has been (assisting the unhoused) for almost 44 years. This will be the first project of its kind in Johnson County, but not the first for (reStart) from an operational standpoint.” Boyer goes on to state: “one of the major differences with this site is that it will be a completely non-congregant shelter. What that means is each person or household has their own room and their own private bathroom.” This is a newer strategy for sheltering and is unique to Johnson County, but Boyer is confident in saying, “(the project) provides a much safer space for people, and people are usually more willing to come into the shelter when they do not have to live with a stranger.”
Boyer said, “Projects like these take time but unfortunately the need is so great. It is hard to be patient and go through all these steps, but I think the important thing is that communities need to do it right in order to be successful.” She estimates the renovation will take around nine months, with an opening date between August and September of 2025.
Many of the individuals assisted by reStart are working-class people who have fallen into hard times. According to Boyer, “Most of the people we serve do have income—it is low income. It’s typically folks who are living on disability or Social Security or even people working a minimum wage job or a low-income job. That is a lot of jobs, and when you compare it to the cost of housing, it is no wonder we see more families become at risk of homelessness.” She goes on to say, “anytime someone is starting to spend more than 30 percent of their income, whatever their income is, on housing they are considered at risk. If something shifts in their lives, they are not going to be able to sustain that for very long.”
Boyer continues, “we are in a crisis as a country regarding housing, so communities really must start looking at both short-term interventions to that crisis, but also long-term solutions to it too… We need to be creating more housing opportunities for people in those lower income markets by incentivizing that, subsidizing that, and creating more public private partnerships to do that.”
reStart has seen many benefits while providing shelter to the unhoused. Providing a living space to someone instantly gives stability to that person, and that helps them focus on their aspirations and future success.
“When they know they have a place to sleep tonight and when they know they have a meal and safety, we start to see a shift in people in just a few weeks’ time where they are thinking positively and considering what they want to accomplish. That is when people start thinking about going to school or getting a job.” Boyer believes this project will increase the work force since those sheltered will have access to reStart’s resources.
Boyer thinks neighboring communities should look to Johnson County as it has been taking steps in both watching the economic climate and housing market, while also working to assist the homeless and creating programs to act as long-term prevention methods.
According to Boyer, “Johnson County sets a good example as a community that is paying attention to what is going on with housing in general.” She goes on to say that every community has some level of homelessness and a housing issue, and it varies. “I really think this project sets a good example of how every community needs to pay attention to what the housing landscape looks like, what the income level in the community looks like, and how much jobs are paying.”
The work being done at reStart changes the lives of many people struggling to break free of homelessness and the individuals and families at risk of homelessness. Boyer believes “everyone deserves to have a safe, stable place to live. (reStart) believes this issue of homelessness is solvable in our communities and, when we create public and private partnerships like this, we can make that happen.” Most importantly, Boyer wants people to know that “we should not be afraid of people experiencing homelessness; they are still people. Some things have happened in their lives, a lot of times beyond their control, and they did not have a support system to rely on. I think trying to understand unhoused people’s stories will help us build empathy for one another because this can happen to anyone.” To learn more and support reStart, visit reStartinc.org.