Douglas County honors Kar Woo for homeless advocacy award
Kar Woo won Nonprofit Connect's Persevering Advocate Award as Artists Helping The Homeless serves about 2,000 people a year and houses about 200.
Kar Woo's work with Artists Helping The Homeless now serves about 2,000 people a year and houses about 200, a reach that helped draw Douglas County attention as he received the 2026 Persevering Advocate Award from Nonprofit Connect.
The honor came at the 42nd Annual Nonprofit Connect Awards Celebration, presented by BOK Financial, and it added to a recent string of public recognition for Woo, including Ingram's 2025 Local Hero designation and the 2026 Marion Nichols Caring Service Award. For Douglas County officials, the award underscored a nonprofit model that has been part of the local response to homelessness for years.
Douglas County has already invested heavily in that work. County leaders previously thanked Woo for partnering with the county to provide respite housing and support for men facing homelessness, mental illness and addiction. The Douglas County Commission approved $364,000 in funding for AHH in 2019 and another $370,000 in 2020.
AHH says its role is to fill gaps in the service network rather than function as a traditional shelter. Its work includes respite housing, transitional housing, transportation help and collaborative care. Kahana House, in south Kansas City, Missouri, opened in February 2024 and hosts about 16 people at a time, giving the organization a small-scale setting for people who need stability before moving to the next step.
The measurable outcomes are part of why Woo's advocacy has continued to attract notice. A 2021 report said AHH's respite house had served 75 men in its first two years, and most of them either reconnected with friends or family or moved on to another housing or recovery option, including Oxford House. That kind of turnover shows the organization is not just providing a bed for the night but helping people move out of crisis.
Woo's path to the award began in 2008, when he moved his art gallery from Leawood to the Plaza and started Sunday night meals in a nearby park for people experiencing homelessness. What started as a personal outreach effort grew into a broader nonprofit that now functions as a bridge between street-level need and the county's overstretched housing and recovery system. In Douglas County, that practical role is what made the recognition resonate.
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