homelessness

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to create the City of Wichita ID to lower barriers for the homeless to access resources.

The Multi Agency Center Board Inc. will take over operations of the current emergency winter shelter on April 1, the first step in establishing the multi-agency center.

The shelter can hold up to 260 people once it’s fully built out. It’s meant for single men and women.

The city’s much-awaited multiagency center is meant to include a shelter for people experiencing homelessness as well as on-site and nearby long-term affordable housing.

As the 2024 calendar turned to autumn, 46 homeless people had died in Sedgwick County. The anecdotal tally for all of 2023 was just 42.

The Court decided Friday that cities can enforce bans on homeless people sleeping outside and encampments, even if no shelter space is available. One statewide official called the ruling ‘profoundly disappointing.’

Wichita is hoping to buy Park Elementary school and turn it into a shelter for people who are homeless by wintertime. But the Wichita school board voted last night to delay a vote on a potential sale until late June.

The city hopes to use the building as an emergency shelter this coming winter, but the school district still needs to vote on the sale.

The point-in-time (PIT) count occurs annually in January. Volunteers and trained professionals walk miles across Sedgwick County to survey people experiencing homelessness.

City officials, including Mayor Lily Wu and City Manager Robert Layton, announced new steps for homelessness policy at the Justice Together Nehemiah Assembly.