The City of Emporia and United Way of the Flint Hills are in a transition period when it comes to homelessness policy.
The city’s Homelessness Advisory Board has been busy since it began operations in July 2023, with work to identify needs and service gaps coupled with additional work to solidify Rural Champions grant funding and to start projects like community lockers.
The board’s 3-year authorization ended 2 months ago, so the United Way is now developing a “community-led structure” that it will lead and will be separate from the former city-appointed board. For the rest of this month, city staff will help the United Way to identify the new group’s initial priorities, overall purpose, structure and membership process — important because, as a group led by the United Way and not the city, appointments and officer positions will not automatically transfer into the new entity. People who served on the Homelessness Advisory Board can still be considered. The city will have a staff liaison with the new group.
Assistant City Manager Tayler Wash and United Way Director Whitney Johnson will have an update on work towards this new entity on KVOE’s Newsmaker segment at 7:20 am Monday.
