The 2024 Point in Time Count data reveals Joplin's homeless population is the largest since the pandemic. The demographic of unsheltered residents has increased by 111% since last year, reflecting a national trend. The cause of Joplin's continued homelessness is unusual compared to the rest of the country.
The 2011 EF-5 tornado destroyed one of Joplin's largest affordable housing neighborhoods. Nearly 15 years later, the city continues to feel its absence, and the rise in housing costs makes it almost impossible for an unhoused person to find permanent housing.
About 10 homeless shelters in Joplin alone serve multiple age demographics.
Watered Gardens is a social services organization in Joplin. Their location on Kentucky Street opens its kitchen for dinner at 5:30 p.m., but homeless people wait for the doors to open an hour before.
James Whitford is the executive director of Watered Gardens. Dignity is a big part of their mission. He believes that everyone can produce and contribute something to society.
"If we're not incentivizing work, people will not escape homelessness and poverty. And unfortunately, many of the programs, especially those from the federal government, are not incentivizing work," he said.
Sarah Henry lives in a shelter with her two children and said reintegration into regular society is the hardest part about being homeless.
"It's hard to adapt back into the life of stability after you've been homeless for so long, or even for a short period of time, because it really brings a lot of feelings of shame," Henry said.
Before becoming homeless, she paid her bills and taxes on time and contributed to society. Henry said it has been increasingly difficult to get back to normalcy.
Women and children are the hardest demographic to house. Only a few shelters in Joplin serve both women and children.
One children's shelter in Joplin experienced a drastic increase in sheltered nights over the last two years.
According to executive director Stephanie Theis, Children's Haven saw a 115% increase in shelter nights for 2023, which continued last year. This drastic increase reflects the growing need for safe and stable care.
Children's Haven is a shelter for newborns to eighteen years old who are experiencing homelessness.
"Just looking for those opportunities to nurture kids, to bond with kids, to help them with communicating their feelings and challenges. And help them understand the things that they can control and the things that they're not responsible for" she said.
The shelter is a three-story house with beds for school-age children, teenagers, and toddlers. It feels homey, with the walls decorated with colorful patterns and shapes.
"We want them to enjoy just the joy of being a kid," adds Theis.
The 2011 tornado damaged the original location. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) gave Theis a grant to build a more prominent Children's Haven. FEMA representatives told her there would be an increased need for her shelter for the next ten years.
The downstairs is the most used room in the house. It's a playroom and a designated storm shelter to reduce future weather anxiety.
"A lot of the time, we don't know if kids have storm anxiety until a storm happens. We intentionally use this room daily to play and have fun," adds Theis.
The dual shelter and playroom are just one piece of the trauma-informed care Children's Haven provides.
One of the main goals of Joplin's City Council this year is addressing the city's homeless issue.
In March of last year, the city hired a Florida consulting company, Sharity, to find a comprehensive solution to the problem. The consulting firm found that the issue is perpetuated because of a lack of city resources and the residual effects of the 2011 tornado.
Sharity's president, Carol Wick, said the firm's objective was to facilitate city officials' creation of their own plan.
Wick noticed one of the key issues was the location of homeless shelters and services. Because they were located in Joplin's central business district, unhoused individuals started congregating in the main downtown area.
She said the only way to avoid the crisis is to build more affordable housing. National research shows that homelessness is directly linked to housing prices.
"When new housing is built, and it's outside the affordability of seniors or people with low income, wages, you see, those people become unhoused faster," explains Wick.
Throughout Wick's research, she realized Joplin became part of a significant trend of an increase in older women becoming homeless. The new demographic debunks the stereotypical unhoused individual.
"It's also about, when we do provide those emergency services, looking at the barriers that we put inadvertently or unknowingly put in play and then we blame people for not accessing the services," said Wick.
Wick praised the city for embracing and fitting the proposed plan into their community's needs.
As for the homeless population, Sarah said anyone can be homeless and that they're people too – even if they're in unstable housing.
"There should not be a stereotype of homeless people. They're just as worthy as anybody else," said Henry.
Since receiving the Sharity Report in 2024, the city has secured a five-year grant to start the Regional Commission to Address homelessness. This commission has up to 24 organization heads and homeless shelters to find a durable solution to the crisis.
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