Fund housing and care — not criminalization
Joplin must respond to homelessness with housing, health care, outreach, and dignity — not punishment, displacement, or policies that simply move people from one block to another.
People do not become safe because the city makes survival illegal. They become safer when they have a stable place to sleep, access to bathrooms and clean water, mental-health and substance-use treatment, case management, employment support, and a real pathway to permanent housing.
We demand that the Joplin City Council:
- Invest in permanent supportive housing, deeply affordable housing, emergency shelter, outreach, and behavioral-health services.
- Publish clear annual goals for shelter beds, affordable units, supportive-housing placements, outreach capacity, and progress toward ending unsheltered homelessness.
- Ensure that no person is punished for sleeping outside when no safe, appropriate, and genuinely available indoor alternative exists.
- Fund sanitation, safe storage for belongings, and access to hygiene services while housing is being secured.
- Prioritize people with disabilities, families with children, veterans, survivors of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ youth, and people at greatest risk of death outdoors.
- Include people with lived experience of homelessness in planning and oversight.
Housing is public safety. A home is safer than a jail cell, an emergency room, or a sidewalk.