Wichita has chosen site for homeless services campus: a newly closed elementary school

The city of Wichita plans to turn a recently closed elementary school into the site of its Multi-Agency Center homeless services campus.

The Wichita school board could approve the sale of Park Elementary at 1025 N. Main for a nominal fee at next Monday’s meeting if all goes according to plan, board President Stan Reeser said.

Officials say the school, in the Historic Midtown neighborhood, could be ready to function as the city’s emergency winter shelter for 2024-25 and fully equipped with wraparound services by 2026. The project is also expected to include about 50 permanent supportive affordable housing units.

“The center will feature a no-barrier, short term shelter open 24/7 year-round and feature coordinated services to connect unhoused individuals to services and resources and to transition them out of shelter services and into affordable housing,” the city said in promotional material.

“The opening of the MAC will also provide unhoused individuals camping, loitering or panhandling in the City a location and a center to go to receive services and housing and get off the street.”

At a news conference Thursday morning, Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard said many of the city’s homeless residents already live around the Midtown area because it is close to many social services they rely on.

“The idea of the MAC is to have anyone with any situation, crisis, to walk into the building and there to be some type of resource or organization in there to address the situation, help them, offer services, and do a warm handoff to whatever the next step may be,” Ballard said.

Sedgwick County Commission Chair Ryan Baty, who along with Ballard is a member of the Homeless Task Force, said the project is “desperately and critically needed.”

“We’re too good to let our most vulnerable citizens sleep in alleys and on street corners,” Baty said. “That is not who we are in this community, and what this effort symbolizes is we are going to raise the bar here to serve people that need served the most.”

The project was initially estimated to cost $80 million, but Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson acknowledged Thursday that its size is being scaled down to account for funding challenges. The city had initially hoped to receive up to $20 million in matching funds from the Legislature, but those efforts fell through. Wichita’s application for $20 million in Low Income Housing Tax Credits to support the project was also passed over.

Anderson said more information about project costs and funding will be disclosed at the city’s Saturday informational meeting, which is being held at the Advanced Learning Library from 2-4 p.m. Elected officials and city staff will also respond to questions Midtown residents have about the center.

“I’m proud that our city has been able to come up with an alternative idea and to not stop when the state didn’t send us our funding,” said Makayla Welch, president of the Historic Midtown Citizens Association. “It could have been easy to put it to the side and just tackle the problem of our unhoused neighbors later, and they didn’t.”

She’s been communicating with residents since finding out about the project plans Wednesday evening. Not all of them are excited about the prospect of the MAC.

“There are neighbors that moved into that area because of the school, right? They chose to raise their children there, and we’ve already taken the opportunity for there to be a public school there, which I am one hundred percent not in support of,” Welch said. “But we can’t then tell these neighbors that have spent their lives living in those homes that we are going to put in a shelter that we are then not going to take care of. That cannot be the message, and the good thing is I don’t think it will be the message.”

Ballard said the city will go to great lengths to ensure the MAC is secure and doesn’t become an eyesore.

“I feel like everything is on the table right now,” she said. “I just want to really learn what would make [residents] feel more comfortable because that’s very important to me, too. Does that mean a solid wall? Does that mean extra lighting? Obviously, we’re going to have security.”

Park is one of six schools the Wichita school board voted this spring to close in May as a cost-saving measure to plug a looming budget deficit. Reeser, the board president, said despite the district’s financial challenges, it makes sense to essentially donate the elementary building to the city.

“It’s important to the school district to be a community partner on all types of projects, and this definitely fits that need,” Reeser said. He told reporters he believes it’s unlikely the property could have been sold for much to another buyer.

“If we can actually help that little section of Wichita, it’s probably more important than whatever nominal fee you could get for disposal,” Reeser said.

Robyn Chadwick, president of the Mental Health & Substance Abuse Coalition, said it’s difficult to overstate the importance of this project and how much has gone into making it possible.

“I am so excited about this I am almost in tears about it,” Chadwick said.

“I’ve been in Wichita for thirty-five years. I can’t remember a time when we’ve had such cooperation and collaboration from all parts of our leadership, so I just say thank you.”

This story was originally published June 6, 2024 at 12:29 PM.