Sheltering the Unsheltered

Related Organization: Kansas City Public Library

The most innovative public policies are often created at the local level, rather than in the courts. This is especially true when it comes to finding a way to shelter a city’s unhoused population. 

As part of the Making a Great City series, Mandy Chapman Semple talks about designing and co-managing the transformation of Houston, Texas’s homeless system, which resulted in a 60 percent reduction in homelessness over four years. She discusses the project and a similarly successful effort in New Orleans, explaining how and why they worked.  

She also details how focusing on housing and healing individuals living in encampments and offering on-site medical teams, addiction specialists, and outreach workers can move cities away from the model of enforcing anti-encampment codes, which result in an ineffective cycle of ticketing and arrests.  

A nationally recognized expert in homeless systems based in Houston, Semple helps communities launch transformative new strategies and program innovations, generating measurable results. 

This event is co-sponsored by JE Dunn Construction and will be streamed live at YouTube.com/kclibrary. No RSVP is required to view the livestream. The video will also be available for on-demand viewing after the event.