Wichita’s emergency winter shelter aims to open around Thanksgiving, which will be the first project of three for a fully developed multi-agency center, according to announcements during last week’s Homelessness Task Force meeting. Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson said the development of the former Park Elementary school site is being planned as three sequential projects: the emergency winter shelter, the multi-agency center, or MAC, and then the build of low-income housing. Anderson also announced that the state legislature didn’t act on their first right of refusal of the Wichita USD 259 property, meaning that negotiations are officially underway between the school district and the city on the purchase agreement. It should go in front of the city council in the “very near future,” he said. In addition, Anderson said that a request for proposals will soon be posted for who will run daily operations of the emergency shelter from Thanksgiving through the end of March. “(It’s) probably a whole other conversation around the multi-agency center and the ultimate operator of that,” he said. Misty Bruckner, a project director with Wichita State University’s Public Policy and Management Center, said the intention is to develop the MAC as a 501(c)(3), granting it nonprofit status. “Homelessness and people experiencing housing insecurity is a community issue. It’s going to be a community development, so thinking from that governance perspective, the intention is to create a 501(c)(3),” she said at the meeting. “That’s part of the effort — that we provide a governance structure with representatives of the community engaged in helping provide direction, policy efforts and make a connected effort to make this map a reality.” Robyn Chadwick, chair of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Coalition, presented a draft plan of the MAC’s daily operations. Intake at the MAC will screen each individual for weapons or drugs, she said, with plans to transport someone that could present a safety concern for other shelter clients. “They can be high or drunk, but if they are incapacitated and unable to participate in the services, then we will get them to (the Substance Abuse Center of Kansas) or to the hospital, depending on the level of severity,” she said. “If they’re in a psychiatric crisis, we’ll be transporting them.” The most recent MAC plans also include an onsite pharmacy, laundry and pet kennels. Case management will be onsite, available in the day center.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
