Homeless family stories prompt changes in how to help

Jan. 21--Stories published recently about homeless mothers living in cars with their children have prompted local charity agencies to sort out whether they are doing enough.

They concluded: No, they are not.

And they will try to do more.

Social service agency leaders and others meet once a month. Recently, they decided to focus more on helping homeless young people and families, several nonprofit leaders said.

Agencies like the Salvation Army and others have helped the homeless in Wichita for decades.

It's not easy work; there are at least 1,600 homeless children in Wichita schools. The United Way counted an estimated 570 people, mostly adults, living in shelters and on the streets last year.

Some of the homeless are working people down on their luck, while others suffer from mental illness or afflictions related to substance abuse and alcoholism.

But recent stories in The Eagle that profiled two families living in cars prompted the 40 people meeting last week to work out what programs might be changed, said Luella Sanders, director of community impact at United Way of the Plains.

Efforts to help homeless Wichitans focus more on homeless veterans and the chronically homeless. Now, there will be a renewed focus on helping get families off the streets, into shelters and hopefully into more permanent homes, Sanders said.

Cynthia Martinez, who runs the district's office helping homeless children, said last month that among the homeless students, they knew of at least 10 high-schoolers living on the streets, 60 high-schoolers "couch-surfing" and 28 students sleeping outside or in cars, abandoned buildings or campgrounds.

"We concluded that we need to do a better job of communicating, including with each other," Sanders said of local agencies. "When there are beds available, and yet we still have families sleeping in cars, how does that happen?"

The United Way does not run shelters but does coordinate grant writing and communication among area shelters.

Helping families will be "complicated," Sanders said. Other people who attended the meeting at the Salvation Army concurred.

"Homeless families face so many challenges that it would be hard to get them all into one article," said Deann Smith, executive director of United Methodist Open Door Inc., which runs programs for the homeless.

"One thing I've heard, for example, is that homeless families don't want to come in, even if there is help available, because they're afraid of losing their kids" to state officials concerned about child welfare, Smith said.

"I hope we can tell them that if they come into the shelters, we will try to keep that family together. We're addressing that fear as best we can."

Local shelters for families are nearly always full, Martinez said, and families, to get in, must call shelters around town, sometimes making as many as 20 calls a day to the same shelter.

The St. Anthony Family Shelter, on average, turns away 30 to 50 homeless families every month, said Wendy Glick, director of Catholic Charities Wichita.

But the Salvation Army'sLynn Tatlock said the Salvation Army in Wichita recently began to emphasize emergency shelter for families. They have 28 beds, she said.

"We have not been full," she said. "So we know we're not getting the word out that 'hey, we're here.' "

This is critical because the need is increasing, Tatlock said.

In the Wichita area, from 2013 to 2016, the number of families locally seeking shelter increased by 23 percent, Tatlock said.

Roy Wenzl: 316-268-6219, @roywenzl

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