Moran helps secure funding for improvements at wheelchair accessible apartments

Sen. Jerry Moran on Monday announced an additional $2.5 million in federal funds to support the Cerebral Palsy Research Foundation of Kansas’ Timbers Housing Renovation Project.

“The bottom line is that if we all work together, we try to make lives a better for other people, every once in a while we can get that accomplished,” Moran said.

The Timbers, near 21st and Oliver, is an income-based apartment community meant for seniors and people with physical disabilities. The apartments were built with wheelchair users in mind and are independent living facilities, not assisted living facilities.

The renovation project is made up of three phases and a “phase zero.”

Phase zero was to build some apartments on campus in order to move residents around while construction was underway without having to displace them off campus.

“The toughest part about this is logistics because we’re not moving residents off site, we’re moving them around,” CPRF president and CEO Patrick Jonas said. “We intentionally leave apartments empty, and then we’ll move people into those apartments.”

Phase one demolished and rebuilt 18 units — two units at a time to avoid displacing too many residents — and was funded through the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation. The city of Wichita also provided a tax relief for the project, which Jonas said saved CPRF around $13 million.

Phase two was funded by Moran’s first $2.5 million, and it is currently funding the renovation of 40 units. Phase two is planned to be completed by summer 2027.

“The original $2.5 million was part of phase two, and part of it we retained for phase three not knowing if we would capture the second $2.5 million,” Jonas said.

Because the second $2.5 million was captured, The Timbers will rebuild its final 30 units and rebuild its congregate area.

“This very building we are standing in, we’re going to be able to demo it and rebuild it with new bathrooms, the computer lab, Jonas said. “There’s going to be new reading facilities. There’s going to be new laundry facilities. It’s going to be awesome, courtesy of Senator Moran.”

The CPRF is still planning on applying for KHRC funding in order to help fund phase three. If that funding isn’t granted, the final 30 units will not be rebuilt, but the congregate building will be. The CPRF will apply for KHRC funding in January.

Moran, a member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, is utilizing money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to fund the final phase of the three-phase renovation.

While there’s only three phases planned, Moran joked he had “no doubt there’s going to be a phase four.”