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![\"Barb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/010825-warmingshelter-kg-04.jpg\")
Barb McEver, co-founder of Project 1020, takes a phone call. File photo.<\/p>\nIn a parking lot in Olathe in July, Gina Foulks sleeps overnight in her car with her doors and windows open to allow for air to pass through. Most nights, the air would be cooler than throughout the day, but not on many nights like this summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is so hot to sleep. I sleep with my doors open, not just my windows, but my doors open, and I park my car in a certain way, and I thank God for the wind,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Throughout the summer, people like Foulks who are experiencing homelessness in Johnson County have struggled to survive the hot weather, which is peaking this week and next with sustained high temperatures in the upper 90s and heat indexes breaking 100.<\/p>\n
Still, Foulks is thankful to have her car, which she uses to drive around to get to the gas stations that she knows are friendly to people experiencing homelessness and will allow her to get free water and ice to cool off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have my car, I don\u2019t know what I\u2019d\u00a0do. I don\u2019t think I\u2019d survive on the streets. I literally don\u2019t think I would,\u201d she said with a laugh. \u201cI laugh, but it\u2019s a nervous laugh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Homeless numbers continue to rise in Johnson County
\nBarb McEver, co-founder of Project 1020, takes a phone call. File photo.<\/p>\n
The extreme heat comes at a time when homeless numbers are up in Johnson County. An annual PIT, or \u201cPoint-in-Time,\u201d count<\/a> by the United Community Services of Johnson County for 2026 showed the number growing over one year from 253 to 321 people.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also been alarming enough that it has caused homelessness advocates like Barb McEver, co-founder of Project 1020, to spend $14,000 of the shelter\u2019s budget on hotel rooms for people experiencing homelessness this summer.<\/p>\n Though Project 1020 normally operates its shelter in cold-weather months, they are currently supporting about 25 people by paying for their hotel rooms to get them out of the summer heat, she said.<\/p>\n Part of the reason for McEver doing that is because they\u2019ve seen people experiencing homelessness suffering heat stroke, as well as trying to avoid sending others who have been treated for ongoing health problems immediately back to the streets.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re out in the heat, and the heat exacerbates (health problems). They\u2019ve been hospitalized, but then they are discharged into homelessness, and we don\u2019t feel like that\u2019s a safe way for somebody to recover from some of these serious situations,\u201d she said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Since May 1, Johnson County MED-ACT, which responds to medical emergencies in Johnson County, has responded to 81 heat exhaustion calls, said Joe Folsom, public information officer for Johnson County Med-ACT.<\/p>\n That number doesn\u2019t include other heat-related calls that could be classified as something else, like people found unconscious due to the heat.<\/p>\n The extreme heat is expected to continue with Extreme Heat Warnings for the Johnson County area lasting through 8 p.m. next Tuesday, with heat index values up to 103, according to the National Weather Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n While Johnson County has a number of cooling centers<\/a> during regular business hours and days, including Johnson County Public Library locations, several community centers and the Olathe Salvation Army, it doesn\u2019t have a day center, a place for people experiencing homelessness to get services like showering, doing their laundry and caseworkers to help them develop a plan to find shelter.<\/p>\n The times and days the cooling centers are open can also vary, depending on the holiday, like this upcoming Labor Day weekend, for instance. There are no plans for cooling centers to be open on Sunday, but two will be available on Monday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., including:<\/p>\n Heat dome is causing heat to linger in Central U.S. While this summer temperatures are comparable to last year\u2019s heat, with high temperatures in the upper 90s, meteorologist Max Shaw at the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, said a heat dome, or a strong high-pressure system that traps hot air over a large region, in the Central United States, makes it particularly harsh.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kind of blocks things up and keeps us in this hot pattern for an extended period of time,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019ve seen hot hot weather for the past week, and we\u2019re going to see that continuing to this next week as that that dome of heat kind of sits there.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, being exposed to temperatures where the heat is over 100 can cause heat exhaustion, heat stroke and can have adverse effects to pre-existing conditions like heart disease and kidney failure, according to the National Academy of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople stay aware of the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke \u2014\u00a0fatigue, lightheadness, feeling dehydrated, that kind of thing. Obviously, we want people to take frequent breaks, especially if you\u2019re working outside doing strenuous activities,\u201d Shaw said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other news outlets have reported<\/a> on the high heat killing football players during practice, like four college and one high school linemen in Kansas since 2018, including 15-year-old Ovet Gomez Regalado in 2024, who died of complications of heat stroke<\/a> after an August workout at Shawnee Mission Northwest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a fight for your survival\u201d Living in his truck, Wiley Mlller, a Johnson County resident, often goes to work and then tries to get some sleep in his vehicle at night.<\/p>\n Normally, the night means cooler weather. With the nighttime temperatures sometimes only dipping into the 80s, it\u2019s felt hotter than usual at night, and he\u2019s needed help.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had some days where I wasn\u2019t dealing with the heat very well and reached out to Barb at Project 1020, and she was able to get me a room at (a hotel) for a few days \u2026 She has done that for so many this summer,\u201d he said in an email to the Post. \u201c(I) don\u2019t know where me or several others would be without her help.\u201d<\/p>\n Friends with both Miller and Foulks, Brian Perkins, another person experiencing homelessness in Johnson County, was able to find temporary housing at a church in the area.<\/p>\n While he considers himself lucky, he still said there\u2019s everyday struggles, like walking to work or the bus station to get a bus pass, which used to be free, but now come with a fee that started on June 1.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been taxing on mine and many other\u2019s mental, emotional, and physical health,\u201d he said in an email to the Post. \u201cIt\u2019s depleting and makes it nearly impossible to have the will to keep going. It\u2019s a fight for your survival. Human beings aren\u2019t built to endure extreme elements like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson County has no shelter for people in the heat While Project 1020 is open from Dec. 1 through March 31, there\u2019s no replacement for it when it\u2019s closed.<\/p>\n While places like Johnson County Library branches and local community centers can act as cooling centers during times of extreme weather, they\u2019re only a temporary fix, said Rita Carr, director of community planning for United Community Services of Johnson County.<\/p>\n What the county needs to start off is a homeless day center that other cities in the Kansas City area, like Kansas City, Missouri\u2019s Hope Faith Homeless Assistance Campus, have, where people experiencing homelessness can take a shower, do laundry and seek assistance for housing, Carr added.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just don\u2019t have an agency that does that type of service here. So it creates a big gap, and it ends up being that the libraries are the one available public space, but they\u2019re not designed as\u00a0day center-type services,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n![\"Cooling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/ales_water.webp\")
A kid chills out in the cooling tent at the Americana & Ales festival in downtown Shawnee earlier this summer. Photo credit Andrew Gaug.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Brian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/brian_bed.webp\")
Brian Perkins sits on a couch that also serves as his bed at a church in Olathe. Photo credit Andrew Gaug.<\/p>\n
\n![\"Gina](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/gina_car.webp\")
Gina Foulks shows the contents of her car, which she also sleeps in at night. Photo credit Andrew Gaug.<\/p>\n