It’s our goal to advocate for the families we serve and bring light to important issues in our community. Therefore, our Board and Staff have just submitted this letter to the Wichita Eagle.
We at Family Promise of Greater Wichita would like to respond to the August 9 article entitled “Wichita’s homeless population is declining (http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article163819143.html).”
The statement that “transitional housing for homeless women and families simply isn’t needed any more” does not match our daily experience with the needs of our community.
As a nationwide leader in serving homeless families with children, Family Promise has over 30 years of expertise, and the national office guides more than 200 local affiliates across the country. An independent needs assessment conducted by the national office recently rated Wichita with the highest rating of need for services for homeless families.
We opened our Wichita affiliate in October 2016 as a hospitality and case management service agency for families experiencing homelessness as a direct result of these findings.
The numbers cited in the referenced Eagle article come from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) annual point-in-time count. We are grateful to our Wichita Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team, as well as many other local service providers, who assisted in this measured decline. However, this count, by definition and methodology, traditionally overlooks homeless families as identified by the Department of Education. Families who are temporarily doubled up, living with family or friends, in a car, shelter, or hotel due to an eviction or economic hardship are unlikely to be counted with the point-in-time data. These are the families we serve.
Family homelessness looks different than chronic homelessness, and the data used by the Department of Education (via the McKinney-Vento Program) most accurately reflects the circumstances we help families overcome every day.
The Wichita USD 259 McKinney-Vento Program provides services for homeless students or those unstably housed. According to the McKinney-Vento counts cited in their October 2016 newsletter (https://www.usd259.org/Page/8180), the Program served over 2450 children and youth during the 2015-2016 school year.
Our mission is to connect these vulnerable families with assistance. We utilize resources from our faith communities to provide temporary lodging and hospitality, and ultimately to empower families to move into sustainable housing, based on demonstrated need. We have also begun a transitional housing program that seeks to help these struggling families overcome barriers to housing.
We are currently experiencing 10-20 inquiries per week from families seeking assistance. They are often referred by other agencies, social workers, or McKinney-Vento school liaisons. The experiences of our guests show us that other local family shelters, allowing all members to stay together, are routinely full.
We have also been filled to capacity, and in those cases we provide for urgent needs of other inquiring families if we have resources available. If there is not space for a family to enter our full program or they do not qualify, we refer and transport these families to shelters in other towns, including Hutchinson and Salina, so that children are not sleeping in unsafe situations. We have provided transportation to assist in reuniting family members, provided fuel to families living in their cars, allowed families to use our shower and laundry facilities, and provided basic case management.
We encourage further investigation into the needs of our community and hope for a greater understanding of the problem of family homelessness in Wichita. We have a very generous community, and together we can continue to empower families to achieve sustainable independence.
Sincerely,
Family Promise of Greater Wichita
Board of Directors & Staff
For more information about our program:
Family Promise of Greater Wichita unites hearts and hands to provide compassionate hospitality and empower homeless families with children to achieve sustainable independence. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
