Latest news with #DeannSmith
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Coalition to End Homelessness gets biggest HUD grant yet
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – The Coalition to End Homelessness in Wichita and Sedgwick County is getting its biggest grant ever from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). At $3.2 million, it's $300,000 more than last year. This year, more funding is available to help keep up with inflation. The money is going toward maintaining Sedgwick County's Continuum of Care program, which is managed by the coalition. The program connects several organizations working to match people with homes to create a more streamlined process. Area nonprofits say maintaining those programs with adjustments to funding is essential. 'For everybody, the cost of living has increased,' said Deann Smith, executive director for United Methodist Open Door. 'It costs more to have food, it costs more to have rent.' The boost in funding this year is allowing existing programs to be maintained. The Salvation Army offers help with unpaid gas bills 'All of our ongoing projects were sustained, as opposed to we had to cut a program,' said Pete Najera, president and CEO of United Way of the Plains, which manages the continuum of care program. The money is divvied up among eight different entities. It helps pay for the United Way's management of the Continuum of Care program, including maintaining a database of information about people who need homes and coordinating services. 'You need those pieces first, and then you bring in the nonprofits that are doing the work,' Najera said. Those nonprofits are also pulling from HUD funding to pay for housing programs. Each nonprofit targets a different demographic. The network of housing services is necessary to connect unhoused people to housing through the planned Multi-Agency Center. 'These programs that are funded today will hopefully create good, affordable options for people to find housing,' said Steve Dixon, the Multi-Agency Center Board Chair. Having affordable housing options is especially important, as past efforts from the city to get money to build affordable housing as part of the multi-agency center have been unsuccessful. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wichita may soon have its own ID cards
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW)—The City of Wichita could soon have its own form of identification. The City Council is slated to vote on whether to create a municipal ID program. The municipal ID would be available to anyone. However, it's more targeted toward the unhoused. It would allow them to access more services, and City Council members say it could also help prevent them from being lost in the system. A municipal ID card would help people who lack easy access to documents like birth certificates or social security cards. 'We've been working on it in the city council for about three years, and we heard need in our community that people need access to IDs,' Tuttle said. Justice Together is a coalition of nonprofits in Wichita that advocates for municipal IDs, specifically to benefit the unhoused. 'That will allow folks to have the identification to get services in the community in their city and be I-9 eligible for work,' Deann Smith, a member of Justice Together, said. It can also help ensure that people who are homeless have proper access to housing and wraparound services from the city. 'It's gonna help us be able to track and just make sure everyone is doing what they need to do as far as the work plans that we set up to get them back on their feet,' District 3 Wichita City Council Member Mike Hoheisel said. He says that includes ensuring unhoused people make it to therapy and doctor's appointments. Municipal IDs would only be recognized within Wichita city limits. They would not be state IDs, so they cannot be used as voter IDs. Justice Together says they hope the county takes on a similar form of identification, but that hasn't been discussed. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
