Last year, the USD 259 Board of Education voted to shut down six schools. In June, the board made the decision to sell one of those schools, Park Elementary, to the City of Wichita for $1 to convert the building into a homeless shelter.
“It Is important to understand that the city closed Park Elementary because of the fact they have a lot of homeless services in the general region on north main street. North downtown has 15 homeless agencies that serve the homeless needs,” USD 259 Board of Education President Stan Reeser said. “The city found it convenient for them to have a facility very close to what they were already providing.”
Reeser said the city is hoping to have this shelter done by this winter. He said the decision was driven by the city’s need for a centralized location to consolidate homeless services such as transportation, meal delivery and mental health services, which would save taxpayer dollars.
In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, David Hodge, CEO of Union Rescue Mission, said “Not only will it be a place to help people escape from the emergency and trauma of homelessness, but we need to equip them so they can emerge and have it not just be a parking place of human beings but an equipping place of human beings.”
According to information presented to the Wichita City Council this summer, the services offered in the homeless shelter will focus on providing temporary situations to help people get out of homelessness to reduce our homeless population in the city of Wichita. The city hopes to have the shelter ready by sometime this winter and hope for it to be open from November through March.
While waiting for the new shelter to open, there are many ways that individuals in the community can help the homeless in Wichita, such as donating any warm clothing or blankets. You can also volunteer at places like The Lord’s Diner, which provides meals for the homeless.
