With new initiatives, Wichita shows commitment to affordable housing
Economic inequality remains at astronomical levels as wealth has continued to flow upward in recent years, while wages for average workers have risen more slowly. In America’s cities, the economic strain faced by the working class is often felt most acutely in the housing market, as gentrification and insufficient home building have combined to push up rents and home prices. With housing costs eating up more of each paycheck, lower-income people often find themselves struggling to pay the rent and facing eviction, displacement, and, in extreme circumstances, homelessness.
This situation is most dire in the country’s most expensive cities, like San Francisco and New York. By comparison, Wichita remains one of the most affordable regions in the country. Still, housing cost burdens are a major problem for many Wichitans. For nearly four in 10 renters in Wichita, monthly rent payments account for over 35% of their income, and for nearly a quarter, more than half of each paycheck goes toward rent. These figures are slightly lower than national averages — a testament to Wichita’s relative affordability — but they are concerning nonetheless.
In the face of these serious challenges, which are likely to be exacerbated by the economic impacts of the pandemic, the city of Wichita has recently embarked on a series of exciting new initiatives that are likely to have a real impact on the needs of the city’s most vulnerable communities.
The City Council recently approved a plan to convert the 316 Hotel into a new affordable housing development. With financial help from the city, HumanKind Ministries will purchase, renovate and operate the building. In the short term it will serve as an overflow shelter for homeless women during the cold winter months, after which the building will be converted into 56 low-cost studio apartments that will provide permanent housing to people emerging from homelessness.
This project represents an innovative collaboration between local and federal government, private donors, HumanKind, and Ascension Via Christi, which owns the land and will lease it to HumanKind for $1 per year. All of these public and private partners should be commended for their creative effort to serve Wichitans dealing with homelessness and poverty.
Simultaneously, the city has been working for several years on a plan to reinvest in central neighborhoods in Wichita. In 2019, these efforts yielded the “Wichita: Places for People” plan, which is designed to stimulate inner-city redevelopment through zoning changes, streamlined bureaucracy, and an emphasis on density and walkability.
There are many things to like about this plan. It will promote the construction of denser housing structures like duplexes and townhouses in our urban neighborhoods.
Most encouraging of all, though, is the creation of a Land Bank, which (if approved) will facilitate the acquisition and redevelopment of abandoned, blighted, and tax-delinquent property. By centralizing and streamlining the acquisition process, the city will be able to return underutilized land to productive use, return it to the tax rolls, and fill in gaps in the street front of distressed neighborhoods. Importantly, this redeveloped land will be used to create new affordable housing units. It will thus simultaneously address the affordability problem, stabilize neighborhoods, and support the social and economic infrastructure of this city.
Too often, urban planning and development strategies in cities across the country (including Wichita) have focused primarily on housing and amenities targeted toward affluent professionals. With these and other promising recent initiatives, Wichita is showing that it takes seriously the needs of the poor and working class, and that it is committed to integrating the priorities of those groups into its vision for the future.