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Sedgwick County Renews Federal Grant For Homeless Housing Program

ROSIE O'BEIRNE
/
Flickr Creative Commons

Sedgwick County commissioners renewed a federal grant Wednesday for a housing program that helps homeless people.

The Shelter Plus Care Housing Program gives homeless people a place to live while they work on skills to increase their income and self-sufficiency.

Assistant County Manager Tim Kaufman said Wednesday the program provides housing vouchers with a care component.

"Those two things combined helped individuals overcome whatever it is that led them into experiencing homelessness," he said. 'Again, the point of all of these programs is to make sure that people have safe and adequate housing."

Comcare, Miracles, Inc. and the KU School of Medicine-Wichita provide referrals, treatment and case management.

The program targets three specific homeless populations.

"They either need to be experiencing a severe mental illness, they are experiencing a substance use disorder or they fall into the category of HIV/AIDS experience," Kaufman said.

The program offers rental assistance at 112 apartments In Wichita.

The commissioners voted unanimously to renew the $972,551 grant from the Housing and Urban Development agency.

To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.orgFollow Deborah Shaar on Twitter @deborahshaar.

Deborah joined the news team at KMUW in September 2014 as a news reporter. She spent more than a dozen years working in news at both public and commercial radio and television stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Detroit, Michigan. Before relocating to Wichita in 2013, Deborah taught news and broadcasting classes at Tarrant County College in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.