‘Rooftop Blues’ Fundraiser to Help River of Refuge Help Working Homeless

To help Kansas City’s working homeless families, the Kansas City Blues Rugby Club is bringing back its Rooftop Blues fundraiser for a second year.

The team will spend the night of Nov. 9 on the roof of the former Park Lane Hospital—now the home of River of Refuge, a local nonprofit that provides transitional housing, financial coaching and other support to the working homeless, many of whom are forced to live in pay-by-the-week motels.

The Blues will be soliciting donations for River of Refuge through this website. For every $10 a person donates, they will receive a free pass to the Nov. 13-15 Rugby Gold Cup Championship at the Swope Park Soccer Village.

River of Refuge was founded by local pastor and real estate investor John Wiley. The nonprofit is getting ready to make its first 11 apartments available to local families. The units are available for three-, six- and nine-month stays. While they live at River of Refuge, the clients will save whatever they would have spent on rent and ultimately use those funds to find more permanent housing.