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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

A New Approach to Ending Homelessness in MO

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Monday, November 18, 2013   

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - For more than 30 years, reStart Inc. has had one mission: to end homelessness in Kansas City. Today, the agency is taking a whole new approach to meeting that goal. It's the end of the line for the homeless men, women and families who use the reStart shelter - the end of standing in long lines every day, often in extreme weather, hoping to get a place for the night.

Evie Craig, president and CEO of reStart Inc., said renovations are now complete that have re-purposed the emergency shelter into a place where clients can stay for longer periods of time. The traditional "cot and a hot" approach to homelessness isn't the most effective way to transition people to permanent housing, she added.

"If you had to leave your home every day, and then couldn't come back again until night and weren't guaranteed you'd always be able to get in, your life would be very different," Craig said.

The re-purposed shelter now offers 4-person units for 42 women and 48 men. Last year, reStart provided services for 16,000 homeless individuals, 9,000 of whom were children and youth.

The transition from an emergency overnight shelter to a longer-term stepping stone to independent living has been a gradual one, with the family shelter opening last year and the last component, the shelter for single men and women, opening today.

The results thus far speak for themselves, she said.

"We have families moving into their own one- and two-bedroom apartments, they can stay for up to six months, and we tripled the numbers of families who exited to permanent housing," Craig explained.

Many shelters across the country are moving away from the overnight-only model as they try to attack the root causes of homelessness.

More information is available at www.restartinc.org.





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