NEK-CAP outlines barriers to housing in Atchison, says program supports about 2025 families

Belinda Estes, director of community services for the Northeast Kansas Community Action Program, briefed the Atchison County Commission on July 21 on NECAPs Continuum of Care tenant-based rental assistance and local housing barriers. She said the programs annual budget is "approximately $252,000 per grant year (starting September), supporting roughly 20-25 families at any given time," and that the five-year figure on the regional form represents the annual budget multiplied by five across four counties, not Atchison alone.

Estes outlined outcomes and obstacles during the presentation. Of about 45 Atchison households who applied recently, 26 enrolled in the program and 17 ultimately found housing in Atchison, highlighting challenges such as a lack of an emergency homeless shelter and a domestic violence shelter in the county, older housing that often fails HUD inspections, and a lag between HUDs published fair market rents and market reality. She described HUDs categories of homelessness, NECAP's coordinated entry regional waitlist and NECAP's approach of providing wraparound services and no blanket felony exclusion when a landlord will accept a tenant. Commissioners asked about local placement rates and coordination with other service providers; Estes said NECAP works with Catholic Charities, the Salvation Army and local nonprofits and emphasized the difficulty of locating eligible housing in Atchison.