A new emergency winter shelter announced Thursday is concerning some community members, who say it may strain an already vulnerable area.
The 250-bed shelter will be located near 21st and Grove, at the former Fundamental Learning Center. The location is in a historically Black neighborhood just north of the 67214 ZIP code, which has an average income that’s half of Wichita's as a whole.
“I just really am concerned that we’re going to take a group of people who need support and assistance, and we’re going to put it in a very vulnerable community that’s already super under-resourced as it is,” said Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez.
The proposed shelter would primarily serve individual men and women experiencing homelessness. It’s also no-barrier, meaning it will accept anyone experiencing behavioral health or substance use challenges.
The shelter is next door to a preschool and a Boys and Girls Club, which has raised concerns about children’s safety. Cornelia Stevens is the executive director of the TOP Early Learning Center next door, which serves 12-month-olds to five-year-olds.
She said she understands the need to shelter people experiencing homelessness. But her first responsibility is to keep children and staff safe, and she’s unsure current security plans are sufficient.
“There’s still a lot of unknown. And we still have a lot of questions,” Stevens said. “And I don’t know that we’re at a place yet that we are settled with the decision.”
The city says the shelter is gated and that security personnel will be constantly present. The shelter is also open 24/7 and aims to have services like health screenings so people can get their needs met in one place instead of having to travel off-campus, said Sally Stang, the city’s housing and community services director.
The Wichita Police Department’s community police officers and homeless outreach team will also be in the area more, Officer Nate Schwiethale said.
And Cole Schnieders, who works on homelessness with the United Way of the Plains, said at a meeting on Friday that the majority of crimes committed by unhoused people are nonviolent.
“Drug use, trespassing, loitering are probably the majority of crimes perpetrated by unhoused individuals,” Schnieders said. “That’s going to be the bigger concern, not violent crimes happening to other citizens.”
The city also says it doesn’t have another option for emergency shelter. After learning in late summer that the former downtown emergency shelter would be unusable this year, elected officials have been scrambling to secure another building in time for winter.
“I don’t think it’s an ideal location,” Stang said. “But it’s the only location we have available, and we’re trying to divert a crisis.”
Other community frustration stems from communication around the shelter. Stevens said she learned about it on Thursday morning, the day it was announced to the public.
Aujanae Bennett, a neighborhood leader, said she also learned about it on Thursday. Stang said that the city knocked on 2,000 doors in nearby neighborhoods on Thursday to inform residents about the incoming shelter.
The building at 21st and Grove isn’t meant to be a permanent location for the emergency winter shelter. Teresa Lovelady, the CEO of HealthCore Clinic, asked city and county officials at a meeting Friday to find a long-term solution for emergency shelter outside of northeast Wichita.
“That northeast area has always taken the burden of all the stuff that has to come its way,” Lovelady said. “I’ve been in that community working and grinding for 20 years, and I can tell you, it’s always something happened to that community and not with that community.”
Last year, the neighborhoods north and south of the shelter learned about a toxic chemical spill beneath their homes, which has been there for more than 30 years. Many are concerned about the health and economic impact it’s had – and frustrated it took decades until the community was informed.
Plus, Bennett says a truck stop is supposed to move in across the highway near 21st Street and I-135, raising worries about air quality.
Bennett’s neighborhood, Northeast Millair, has also dealt for years with over a dozen vacant and boarded-up public housing units.
The city will vote on Tuesday to allocate $685,000 to HumanKind to operate the shelter.
