The city of Wichita will be using just over $300,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds for a program to help the homeless population.
The city’s director of housing and community services, Sally Stang, said state health officials have estimated that 30 percent of the population in Sedgwick County may be infected with COVID-19. She said numbers from California and Washington state suggest that the incidence of COVID-19 is double that of the general public. With 530 homeless people in Wichita and Sedgwick County, there could be 159 to 318 who could have the virus.
Stang said the CARES Act approved by Congress includes funding for the Emergency Solutions Grant program, and funding from that program will be used to provide hotel and motel rooms for homeless people who are being tested and those who test positive.
The funding will be provided to the United Way of the Plains, and it will provide a hotel stay of up to four days for 159 people who are being tested. It will also provide for a hotel stay of 14 days for people who test positive. The Sedgwick County Health Department will have to approve the hotels and motels used for the program, to make sure there is isolation from other hotel guests and to make sure the hotels have the proper ventilation system.
