About 100 residents came out Saturday to hear more about Wichita’s preliminary plans to convert the recently closed Park Elementary School into a campus for the homeless.
The two-hour meeting in the Advanced Learning Library became heated at times, with historic downtown neighbors asking a number of questions about the proposed Multi-Agency Center, including how safe it will be and what impact it could have on the value of their property.
If an agreement is reached between the city and the Wichita school board to sell Park for $1, officials say it will be ready to serve as an emergency winter shelter by mid-November and fully equipped as a shelter serving the entire can be used year round, with comprehensive services. .
Officials also shared a basic layout for how the various components of the MAC, including shelter space, supportive housing units and a navigation center to connect people to resources, would fit into the existing school and potential expansion.
Is the Park Elementary deal final?
The school board will vote on two measures at its Monday evening meeting: one to declare Park surplus property and another to conditionally sell the elementary building to the city.
If all goes according to plan, the City Council will vote Tuesday on an option agreement with the district, which would open a due diligence period for the city to inspect the property. But as with any closed school building, the state Legislature has first right to deny the property if lawmakers pass a resolution to acquire it.
When Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson said the deal was still in the early stages, he was met with a burst of laughter from the audience and an interjection of “Yep.”
“No decision has been made. I know you all keep suggesting that this is so. No decision has been made yet,” Anderson said. “USD259 still needs to make a decision Monday night and the City Council still needs to make a decision Tuesday morning. And again, that just gets an option on the property.”
He said the city still has an option on the former Riverside Hospital complex.
“If there were unlimited dollars, we would want this somewhere else – not in your neighborhood, not here or there,” Mayor Lily Wu told Midtown residents in response to their objections. When asked after the meeting, she did not say where she would prefer the facility to be located, but only that it would ideally be built from the ground up.
How much is it?
When city officials announced Thursday that they were considering Park as a possible location for the MAC, they declined to answer questions about project costs and financing, saying more information on both would be available at Saturday’s meeting. That turned out not to be the case.
“The answer is, we don’t know yet,” Anderson said.
The city’s original vision for the MAC was an $80 million facility at the Riverside Hospital complex in West River Plaza.
“Obviously Park Elementary is not on the same scale as West River Plaza, so it will probably be less. How much less? Probably a lot less, right?” said Anderson.
He could not say how much the city is willing to spend on the project. The initial plans called for a city investment of $20 million, including $7 million in ARPA funds and $13 million in proceeds from the sale of city properties. Wichita officials had hoped to secure up to $20 million in state funds and another $20 million in low-income tax credits, but neither succeeded.
Anderson said that after the initial construction of the MAC, staff is working to understand how much it will cost to operate the facility. He said there will likely be a role for “corporate and philanthropic sponsors” in supporting the activities.
What services will be provided?
The 24/7 year-round care will be accessible and not no-barrier, as previously indicated. That means that while no one will be turned away for not having an ID or for being under the influence, he or she will not be allowed in with drugs or weapons, Anderson said.
City staff provided an overview of the wrap-around services likely to be available at the MAC. They include an activity center, elderly/disabled services, bed bug treatment, wardrobe, computer lab, driver’s license/ID services, domestic violence/human trafficking support, food pantry, meal provision (3 meals per day), hair cuts, housing providers, laundry, pet kennels , Law Enforcement/Homeless Outreach Team, Legal Services, Mailroom, Medical/EMS Services, Mental Health Services, Quarantine Room, Showers, SNAP/DCF, SOAR (a program to connect eligible homeless residents with benefits), Storage, Substance Abuse Services , United Way, Veterans Services, Veterinarians and Human Services.
“People who don’t have a home often face so many barriers beyond just their housing needs,” said Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard. “The MAC will be able to provide services in one location and eliminate many of the hardships unhoused residents face in seeking help.”
The plan is to provide continued support through case management. Once people have moved into temporary housing, the goal is to ensure they can participate in the city’s affordable housing voucher program.
How many shelter beds will there be?
The MAC will have both joint and non-joint shelters. Non-congregate shelters provide clients with their own sleeping and bathroom facilities, while congregate shelters provide shared bedrooms and bathrooms.
Anderson said two preliminary site plans have been developed for the Park Elementary site. One includes 166 beds and the other, which has more shared facilities, would accommodate 198 beds. Both options could be expanded to 76 beds during emergency winter shelter operations, bringing the total number of beds to 242 or 274.
“We’re talking about bringing everyone from Sedgwick County here. Do you think that will be enough?” asked an audience member.
Officials agreed the facility would fill the need and ease pressure on a strained network of providers. Wu noted that Union Resuce Mission, one of the only year-round shelters in the city, serves only men.
“There is no room right now – especially for a woman,” she said. “Especially when she’s camping, unless she’s a victim of domestic violence, we don’t have a shelter for her.”
How does this affect property values?
Residents repeatedly expressed concerns about the impact the MAC could have on their property values and quality of life. The Lord’s Diner and The Inn, a childcare service offered by HumanKind, are already in Midtown.
“Why would anyone move to Historic Midtown?” someone asked.
Anderson said property appraisals are generally based on the price of comparable properties sold near the home in question and adjusted for other factors.
“We don’t know what the impact will be at this point,” he said.
Some attendees disputed his logic.
“There will be no comparisons to any other house next to the largest homeless center in the city. You won’t find a house like that,” one meeting attendee interjected.
Anderson pointed out that if the deal falls through, Park will remain a vacant elementary school.
“Today it is an abandoned building for all intents and purposes, which also has an impact on property values,” he said.
Wu directed staff to gather information and report on the potential impact the project could have on property values in the area.
What safety measures will be taken?
The emergency winter shelter, most recently located in northeast Wichita at 21st and Opportunity Drive, was equipped with a metal detector and had a screening procedure in place to ensure operators always knew who was entering and leaving. Anderson said the MAC would have similar features.
Police Chief Joe Sullivan said after the meeting that there was an increase in radio calls for violations and nuisance complaints around the emergency shelter, but there was no significant increase in violent crime.
“The impact was not what people feared,” he said.
Officials agreed there will be ongoing conversations about how best to secure the facility.
“One thing I don’t think we’ve focused strongly enough on is that we’re going to emphasize safety,” Wu said after the meeting. “Safety is the number one thing we want – not just for our unhoused population, but for the neighbors in that area.
“Whether it’s a brickwork perimeter, an officer walking around. These are all parts of the issues we still need to talk about, but safety will come first.”
Will this change how the city enforces its anti-camping law?
Ballard, whose borough includes Midtown, said she receives five to 10 emails a day about encampments.
“We currently have no shelter. We have nothing,” Ballard said. ‘They are located on the rivers. They are downtown. They are in people’s yards. They are in people’s business. They are everywhere. And that’s because they don’t have a place to go.”
Wichita has a ban on camping, but state law allows people to legally camp if there is no shelter available where they can stay. There is currently a case before the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of camping bans.
“Right now, people are often frustrated because the [Homeless Outreach Team] can’t move as fast as they want to,” Sullivan said. “We don’t have a place to take them, so the idea that if we have a place we can take you, a humane, safe place where we can take people to find shelter, this gives us more enforcement power on the streets and will enable us to enforce the camping regulation.”
Wu said she also wants to see strengthened enforcement.
“I don’t believe it’s compassionate for people to live on our sidewalks or under our bridges. It’s not compassionate,” Wu said. “We need to have a space where people can get proper shelter and connect them to the right resources.”
