By Kylie Cameron/The Wichita Eagle
The emergency winter shelter in the former Park Elementary School will open on Dec. 2.
The low-barrier shelter is part of the planned multi-agency center for homeless services at 1025 N. Main St.
“Our immediate goal and objective is an emergency winter shelter, a 24/7, at least 18-week shelter through the winter months, much like we did last winter,” Assistant City Manager Troy Anderson said. “And then the goal is to ultimately transition into a full-time shelter with support services.”
Humankind, a nonprofit formerly known as Interfaith Ministries, will operate the shelter this year as it has in the last 20 years.
Much of the building looks the same as it did when it was a school, and some of the cubbies still have name tags from the last school year. The gymnasium and classrooms will have dozens of metal bunk beds for sleeping areas.
The shelter is preparing for up to 230 beds, mostly for men, as the cold sets in. The city said at its busiest last year, the shelter saw 192 people.
“It’s usually four men to every one woman,” City Housing Director Sally Stang said. “It varied a little, never did it hit 50%.”
Although visitors can use the restrooms that already exist in the building, the city has brought in additional restroom and shower trailers.
Security screening equipment has yet to be added to the shelter entrances. “
We may have to provide wands or other type of security measures at first,” Anderson said. “But we are in the process of improving, enhancing the facility, particularly safety, security.”
This will be the first year the shelter has operated in a 24/7 capacity. Last year, doors to the shelter near 21st and Grove were open only at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 6:30 to 9 p.m.
The shelter does not have kennels for pets those seeking shelter may bring in, but the city said they can use other services, like Humankind’s The Inn nearby or United Way of the Plains boarding assistance program.
When construction of the center is complete, the city’s website said, it will include kennels and services for pets.
Contractors finished installing the fire suppression system recently, a process the city thought could take weeks to do when the city approved funding for the project earlier this month.
The former school is split up into two sections, with the one-floor wing on the south side of the building operating as the shelter, and the two-floor space to the north as the multi-agency center.
Construction is still ongoing for the center and will be for the next 12-18 months, according to the city. It has budgeted $6.3 million for renovations of the shelter and center, much of that through American Rescue Plan Act funds.
“We want to ultimately try to achieve net zero when it comes to homelessness, providing those wraparound services,” Anderson said. “This is a goal, an objective, to try and respond to the issues we’re having in our community around homelessness, mental health, substance abuse.”
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.
This article was republished here with the permission of: The Wichita Eagle