Vulnerable Populations

Vulnerable Populations:

Other Vulnerable Populations

Linguistic isolation in the metro is well below the national average, but growing.

People who don't speak English very well tend to have more difficulty accessing medical care and health information. They may also have cultural perceptions about health and medical care that differ from the population as a whole. The U.S. Census Bureau measures linguistic isolation through its American Community Survey, tabulating the number of people over age 5 who speak English "less than very well." In the Kansas City MSA, linguistic isolation grew in the urban and suburban counties from 2000 to 2015, but remained the same or declined slightly in most rural counties.

Undocumented populations, who often lack access to health care, are on the rise.

People without documentation often do not have the resources to access health care and may be reluctant to access medical care, including emergency rooms.

While there is no valid count of this population, the Pew Hispanic Center provides estimates by state. In its 2016 study, based on 2014 data, the center estimated there were 55,000 undocumented immigrants in Missouri and 75,000 in Kansas.

Using these state figures in combination with linguistic isolation data, MARC estimates that there are 44,083 undocumented residents in the 11-county area (24,844 on the Kansas side of the region and 19,239 on the Missouri side). This is slightly higher than 2012 estimates.

Estimates of Undocumented Populations
Statewide totals

Homeless populations, especially youth, are particularly vulnerable.

Homeless populations are very vulnerable to medical issues and often have difficulty accessing consistent medical care except through emergency rooms. This population is also difficult to measure. In a 2014 point-in-time count, service agencies in Jackson, Johnson and Wyandotte counties identified 2,360 homelss individuals. Just over 50 percent were black, 41 percent white and 9 percent Hispanic. According to the Homelessness Task Force of Greater Kansas City, this count is thought to be very low compared to the actual number of homeless in the region.

Another nationally accepted means of estimating homeless populations is to figure 6.3 percent of the people with disabilities — particularly those with limited mobility — often face special concerns that impact their health and access to health care.

Disability categories include vision, hearing and cognitive impairments; ambulatory difficulties; and self-care and independent-living limitations. More than 10 percent of the region's population has some type of disability, and that number rises to more than 35 percent for older adults. total population living below 100 percent of the federal poverty level. Using this formula, there are an estimated 15,291 homeless individuals in the region.

A 2014 report prepared for MARC by the University of Missouri Institute of Public Policy documented homelessness among K-12 schoolchildren in the Kansas City region (not including Allen County). The report found a steady increase in the number of homeless youth — almost doubling between the 2008–2009 school year and 2012–2013 — and substantially higher numbers than the point-in-time counts. The latest data, for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years, shows a downward trend in the total number of homeless youth.

Number of Homeless Youth by County and School Year
	2008-2009	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	2012-2013	2013-2014	2015-2016	2016-2017
Cass	84	224	320	316	412	452	466	398
Clay	1,425	910	682	637	741	746	758	741
Jackson	2,002	2,386	2,841	3,256	3,990	4,242	3,866	3,554
Lafayette	*	76	56	57	63	90	78	54
Platte	308	174	228	234	228	182	109	225
Ray	2	0	0	3	7	13	0	0
Allen	*	*	26	11	22	0	*	*
Johnson	576	746	902	1,161	1,240	1,254	1,059	1,103
Leavenworth	17	416	556	511	1,004	591	203	174
Miami	59	134	75	101	86	95	176	128
Wyandotte	436	1,179	1,251	1,036	1,133	1,422	987	982
Total	4,929	6,245	6,937	7,323	8,926	9,087	7,702	7,359

Source: Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Kansas Department of Education. Kansas does not report when the number is below 10. Lafayette County, Missouri, data is unavailable for 2008–2009.

More than 10 percent of the region's population has some type of disability, and that number rises to more than 35 percent for older adults.

People with disabilities — particularly those with limited mobility — often face special concerns that impact their health and access to health care. Disability categories include vision, hearing and cognitive impairments; ambulatory difficulties; and self-care and independent-living limitations.

A lack of education is closely correlated to poverty and other vulnerabilities.

Education level is a measure that is closely correlated with other vulnerable population measures such as poverty, race and ethnicity, and linguistic isolation. Adults with less than a high school education are distributed across counties in a pattern similar to poverty, with suburban communities having lower percentages and urban and rural counties having higher percentages. Most counties and the region are doing significantly better by this measure than the nation as a whole.