Neighbors in Gardner come together to help displaced apartment residents
The complex was condemned by the city on Tuesday, citing safety concerns. Since then, the community in Gardner has been pooling resources in preparation for Wednesday's meeting.
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Micah Norman lived at Aspen Place until December; she went to the office as soon as she could to help.
'I know I couldn't sit with a hot meal and a warm bed last night knowing I haven't done what I can,' she said. 'And there were probably a handful of us, just neighbors at the office looking at each other, like, 'how do we help?' And we just started knocking on doors and saying, 'how do we help?'
She's organizing moving supplies and volunteers for the residents. She says the response from neighbors and local businesses has been amazing.
'In the past 24 hours, we built an insane little resource center just based on all of the donations from the community,' she said. 'Gardner has really pulled it together. We did not have to ask for anything, really.'
Among the resources available was Kansas Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm helping low-income Kansans.
'It's our view that what happened here is a product of a city failing these families,' said Executive Director Matthew Keenan. 'It's a product of a landlord that's failing these families and let's hope that the legal system and the courts don't fail these families too.'
Keenan says the 48-hour notice to vacate their homes wasn't enough.
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'The failure to give adequate notice and warning that this was a potential is, in my mind, the biggest failure,' he added.
The effort to get the resources together has all happened in two days, it's been a large undertaking.
Brandon Champagne, pastor at Grace Baptist Church, said everyone, both residents and neighbors, was shocked.
'They didn't plan for this, you know, as of 24 hours ago, they didn't know this was going to happen,' Champagne said. 'But also, neither did our community. It's just people who said this could be me, it could be my family, and it's our community so we need to help.'
Despite the circumstances, the sight of so many Gardners coming to help their neighbors was a powerful sight.
'In a world that's so full of conflict and arguments, it's great to see, I mean there's hundreds of people here,' Champagne said. 'And it's hard to tell who's the one here getting help and who's the one helping, because again, it could be any one of us.'
Norman takes solace in the fact that the community rallied so quickly.
'It makes me feel better knowing that if I ever face anything like this again, then I have a whole community of people around me and I just applaud them,' she said.
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If there's one positive to take from the meeting, for her, it's that her and her neighbors won't be far from help.
'You're not alone. No matter what you face in life, you're not alone,' Norman saqid. 'Even if it feels like the things that are supposed to be there to support you aren't, the people next to you care.'
The Hope Market is still organizing donations and volunteers for the Aspen Place residents here.
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