Wichita’s emergency winter shelter will operate around the clock. Here’s when and where

The city of Wichita is moving forward with plans to open its emergency winter shelter in the former Park Elementary building around Thanksgiving.

The shelter will be part of the planned multi-agency center for homeless services at Park.

The City Council approved two contracts for the center Tuesday: one for more than $6.3 million of renovations to the building, and another to allow HumanKind to operate the emergency shelter this winter.

HumanKind, a nonprofit formerly known as Interfaith Ministries, has operated the emergency shelter for the last 20 years, according to the city.

The shelter’s opening time is dependent on when certain renovations will be done, especially installing a new fire suppression system. The rest of the renovations will be done in phases while the shelter is open for the winter.

“We’re trying to get this to a point so that we save people’s lives and people can actually have a place to go,” city housing director Sally Stang said.

This will be the first year the shelter has operated in a 24/7 capacity. Last year, doors to the shelter were only open at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6:30 to 9 p.m.

“If they come in after lights out or before lights up, they’re going to… have to sit in a waiting area and not be allowed to go in and disrupt other people while they’re sleeping,” Stang said.

A 501(c)3, with its own board of directors, is being set up to continue operating the shelter after March 31 when the winter shelter closes and when the rest of the center is being built out.

Other parts of the center include permanent shelter space, areas for agencies to collaborate, and low-income housing.

Stang said the rest of construction on those spaces is expected to take up to a year or year and a half.

“We’ll be lucky if it’s April 1, 2026 when all that construction gets done,” she said.

This story was originally published November 4, 2024 at 4:33 AM.