Joplin Council tackles city's homeless issue

JOPLIN, Mo. — As one of the last official items of business before the new year, the Joplin City Council turns their attention toward homelessness.

"The Joplin City Council is not afraid of doing the hard stuff, and this is one of those hard things. It's not fun to do, it doesn't feel great when you're doing it. But it's necessary for the community. We're not going to put our head in the sand about our homelessness situation here, we're going to tackle it head on and try to make a positive impact,” said Joplin Mayor, Keenan Cortez.

One item the council tackled on Monday night (12/16) was funding the "Homeless Management Information System." It consists of a database tracking homeless individuals and referring them to the appropriate agencies for assistance.

The $17,000 system is paid for by a community development block grant.

"We have been truly blessed by having some staunch people in our community supporting homelessness efforts,” said Mayor Cortez.

To help with homeless coordination, the council approved the creation of a new position to do just that.

"We are at that point now going into 2025 where we're ready to bring that homeless coalition coordinator on board and get them to have their only focus to be, 'What can we do to improve homelessness in our community? How can we serve that segment of our population, how can we make that better for our community,” said Mayor Cortez.

The position, which falls under the "Regional Commission on Homelessness," pays a salary of $125,000. The job description is to coordinate and implement homelessness issues and efforts.

"Those are our friends, those are our neighbors, those are people that are less fortunate than us. We can't turn a blind eye to them, we need to help them, and we're well on our way to getting that established in our community,” said Mayor Cortez.

Council intends to keep a close eye on the progress made by whoever fills that position, requiring them to report directly to council multiple times a year.