Joplin city council elections are sure to be competitive next month. Five candidates are running to fill three openings for the four-year general seat races. The field includes incumbent Doug Lawson and newcomers Kate Spencer, Brian Evans, and Josh Detar.

In an interview this weekend, Detar says that the city needs to address its homelessness problem by working with established organizations in the community. “Obviously I want to do everything we can to help the homeless population. I’ve already been that way since I was a little kid; I always wanted to help. But, I don’t believe that it’s necessarily the city government’s job to come in alleviate the homeless issue. We need to work with the organizations and support the organizations or the experts that help the homeless. We need to do whatever we can to do to allow them to do their job the best they can.”

Absentee voting for the election started last week, while in-person voting takes place Tuesday, April 5. We’ll hear more from Josh Detar as KRPS starts its series of candidate interviews on Tuesdays Morning Edition.