photo by: Dylan Lysen/Kansas News Service

Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister said arresting homeless people for minor crimes would likely only mean a few hours in the jail and then the person would be back in public, where they have nowhere to go and could be arrested again.

LAWRENCE — In any given community in Kansas, a homeless person sitting or sleeping in public could be accused of violating city ordinances on loitering or trespassing.

Police officers in some communities struggling with homelessness are not likely to dole out tickets or arrests for the low-level crimes. That’s led to some Kansas lawmakers questioning if communities struggling with homelessness are too lax on law enforcement and not doing enough to try to help address homelessness.

But arresting people for minor crimes stemming from homelessness puts law enforcement officials in a difficult position. While they want to serve the public and hold people accountable for their actions, the continual arrests cost tax dollars without addressing the underlying problem.

Homelessness in Kansas grew to a total of about 2,800 people this year, which is more than a 50% increase since the count in 2021 that found 1,803 homeless people.

In Lawrence, a community with a relatively high homeless population, people without shelter are not hard to find. They are often seen in public places, like in busy downtown Lawrence.

Douglas County Sheriff Jay Armbrister has seen plenty of those individuals end up in his county jail, only to be released back into the public in a few short hours — still with very few options for where they can go.

Armbrister said arresting a person and holding them in the Douglas County jail costs on average $1,000. A homeless person could be processed and released quickly. Without a place to go, the person could soon be facing another arrest.

The costs for Douglas County taxpayers can then rise rapidly. Armbrister said that poses a difficult scenario where conventional law and order is ineffective for minor crimes.

“You just simply cannot arrest your way out of this kind of problem,” Armbrister said.

Still, some rural lawmakers in the Kansas Legislature are asking whether the state should help communities address rising homelessness in Kansas unless there’s a crackdown on crime. They’ve also shared frustration with business owners who feel unchecked crimes by homeless people are hurting their communities and their business interests.

Experts serving homeless populations argue that cracking down on minor crimes is unproductive, and it can actually make homelessness worse.

Christina Ashie Guidry, director of policy and planning for United Community Services of Johnson County, said that would only temporarily brush the problem under the rug and is also a misuse of law enforcement.

“We’re asking them to punish people,” Ashie Guidry said, “because we’re not providing the services that those people need to thrive in our community.”

Some communities are now trying to be proactive, which may be more cost effective in the long run.

More law enforcement

Rising homelessness is frustrating business owners in Lawrence. The City of Lawrence reported that homelessness grew in Douglas County by 18% in 2024.

Brady Flannery, who operates Weaver’s department store in downtown Lawrence, told state lawmakers during a special hearing on homelessness in 2023 that businesses feel the downtown area is unsafe. He said people are doing drugs and law enforcement is not addressing it.

Flannery said his business has also dealt with a homeless man whose only goal is to be arrested. He said the man will purposely trespass on Weaver’s property so law enforcement will arrest him and take him to the jail, where he will be fed and have shelter.

“We certainly believe our police department is not capable of enforcing true criminal behavior,” Flannery said.

Republican state Rep. Francis Awerkamp of St. Marys said if he committed those kinds of misdemeanor crimes in his town, there would be criminal consequences. He said his takeaway from the hearing was that local communities need to have equal application of the law and protect property rights.

The special committee also released a report to the Legislature that said effective law enforcement was “critical” to addressing homelessness. It also echoed Awerkamp’s comments on property rights and applying the law equally.

At another hearing on the issue earlier this year, Republican Rep. Duane Droge of Eureka also suggested law enforcement needs to focus on homeless populations.

While considering a bill that would have provided $40 million of funding for the development of homeless shelters in the state, he questioned why the state should use tax dollars partly paid by rural residents.

He said rural taxpayers don’t think cities like Lawrence are tough enough on crime.

“Do they prosecute and enforce their rules and regulations and their laws? Everything from vandalism clear down to jaywalking?” Droge asked in the meeting. “Why do (rural residents) have to step in and help, if the urban area is basically not doing the things that most of Kansas thinks they should do?”

That bill ultimately died in committee.

Meanwhile, some cities across the country are making camping in public a crime, arresting or ticketing people for sleeping on public land, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that those types of ordinances were legal.

Awerkamp also held a hearing in 2023 on a bill that would have created a misdemeanor for unauthorized camping, sleeping or setting up long-term shelters on land controlled by the state or local governments. It also would have allowed the Kansas attorney general to penalize cities that don’t enforce the no-camping rule.

That bill received significant opposition and also died in committee.

Ineffective measures

As Douglas County sheriff, one of Armbrister’s main jobs is to oversee the county jail. That’s where people will end up if they are arrested for violations of city ordinances or state statutes.

While members of the homeless population in Lawrence have committed serious and violent crimes, Armbrister said the vast majority of unlawful activities are low-level misdemeanors, like trespassing and loitering.

The Douglas County Jail is already near capacity with people accused of more serious crimes. Armbrister said that means the low-level offenders would be processed and released back into the public quickly.

But people who are homeless would still have nowhere to go, and could commit a similar low-level crime and get arrested again.

Armbrister said it’s a cycle that could keep repeating without ever addressing the underlying issues, making it a mostly futile effort. He said lawmakers who want police to beef up their response to minor crimes committed by homeless people are looking for easy solutions to a complex problem.

“I look at it as a housing problem,” Armbrister said of growing homelessness in his community. “It’s a systemic problem some folks look at as a criminal problem.”

Advocates also argue that cracking down on minor crimes by homeless people will actually make homelessness worse.

Ashie Guidry said arresting and ticketing homeless people for crimes like trespassing on public land can put them further into debt, making it even less likely they can afford a place to live. She said spending tax dollars for law enforcement to focus on homeless people is a sunk cost that will never be recovered. Instead, she said communities should proactively fund services to provide assistance to homeless people that will help them find permanent shelter and support services.

Especially because the homeless people who are visible in public and may end up in jail are only a fraction of the 2,800 people experiencing homelessness in Kansas. Many of them have jobs but cannot afford a place to live.

Studies show that providing housing and health services — which is known as the Housing First model — can help reduce homelessness. Ashie Guidry said that could also lead to a reduction in the misdemeanor crimes stemming from homelessness, saving communities money in the long run.

“Do we want to be proactive and productive and solve homelessness and support our neighbors at a fraction of the cost,” Ashie Guidry said, “or do we want to have kind of a knee-jerk reaction, get them out of sight?”

Proactive steps

The City of Lawrence has taken several steps to help the homeless population. Along with its homeless shelter providing emergency housing, the city also operates a Pallet village to help people transition out of homelessness.

The city and Douglas County also established a long-term plan to end chronic homelessness by 2028. The plan includes investing in various different housing approaches, from emergency shelters to new permanent affordable housing.

In Topeka, another Kansas community struggling with homelessness, law enforcement is also taking a different approach with an outreach team that serves its homeless population.

Sgt. Matthew Rose, who leads the team, said his officers wear casual clothes and drive unmarked cars because many homeless people have had negative experiences with police officers.

Rose told lawmakers his officers will only enforce high-level felonies against homeless individuals. Instead, he said his team focuses on building trust.

“So when they are ready to take the next step whether it be for rehabilitation services or mental health services,” Rose said, “we help connect them to other people they can trust and (it) helps open those doors.”

Ashie Guidry said that kind of proactive approach can help address homelessness if it’s matched with other measures like increasing affordable housing.

Lawmakers on a special committee will look into affordable housing in the state later this month.

— Dylan Lysen reports on social services and criminal justice for the Kansas News Service.