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Council approves liquor-tax budget revision to add staff for homeless care coordination team
Summary
On May 27 the Wichita City Council approved two consent items to revise funding and a contract for the city's homeless care coordination teams, adding staff and raising pay for peer recovery specialists. Council approved both items 7-0.
The Wichita City Council approved two consent items May 27 to revise funding and a contract for the city's homeless care coordination teams, adding another team member and increasing pay for peer recovery specialists. The motions passed unanimously, 7-0.
City staff said the care coordination teams are managed by the Department of Housing and Community Services and have been funded with liquor-tax revenue. "This is a project that has been ongoing and has been funded by Liquor Tax," said Steve, assistant director of the Department of Housing and Community Services. He described the item as "a budget revision item to allow the care coordination team to add another person in order to complete the spending." The council voted to approve consent agenda items 16 and 17 separately; both passed 7-0.
The council's funding actions will allow the team to add staff who work alongside social work interns, case managers and housing navigators to engage people living outdoors and in encampments and to identify housing resources. Steve said the teams "participate in coordinated street outreach" and include a housing navigator, a case manager, a social work intern and a peer recovery specialist to assist in engagement.
Council members asked how the care coordination teams work with the Wichita Police Department's homeless outreach team. "The homeless outreach team is a member of our community's street outreach, part of our care coordination teams," Steve said. He also told the council the contract for the peer recovery specialists is with Episcopal Services, doing business as Breakthrough, and that the contracted positions are intended to be people with lived experience.
On the contract amendment (consent item 17), staff explained the original agreement anticipated three peer recovery specialists at $10.50 an hour but that the contractor had been able to hire only one at that wage. Steve said the contractor told staff it could recruit the additional two specialists if the hourly wage were raised to $14. "They believed that they would be able to increase to the 3 that they'd originally promised if they could increase the wage to $14 an hour," he said. Council approved the contract amendment 7-0.
Council members also asked about the point-in-time (PIT) homeless count for 2025. Steve said the United Way of the Plains is entering the PIT data into HUD's reporting portal and expected to submit it by June 13; HUD then has a period to review or ask questions. "We expect that she's probably going to finalize that and submit it by June 13, and then there is a period of time in which HUD has the right to accept, deny, or ask questions," Steve said.
No public comments were offered during the council's public-comment period for these items. Several council members emphasized continued coordination between the care coordination teams and police outreach when interacting with people experiencing homelessness as staff implement the expanded contract and staffing.
Council action: both items (16 and 17) were approved, 7-0. The amendments allow additional staffing for the care coordination teams and raise the contract wage for peer recovery specialists with Episcopal Services (DBA Breakthrough) in order to recruit the full complement of specialists.
