A week after the city of Wichita agreed to fund an emergency winter shelter, Sedgwick County will also join the effort.
The county will provide $200 thousand to fund the emergency winter shelter near 21st and Grove in northeast Wichita. Last week, HumanKind agreed to fund $200 thousand as well, with the city of Wichita funding the remainder from ARPA dollars.
Commissioner Ryan Baty said while the shelter will be a stop-gap for this winter, the community cannot ignore the broader conversation that must take place to address the issue in the long-term. He says “doing nothing is not going to positively impact the trajectory of this situation...it will get worse.”
Baty hopes community leaders will have an interim plan in place by April 1, when the shelter closes down.