30 March 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Topeka City Councilwoman Christina Valdivia-Alcalá organized a community meeting on March 29, as a way for people in the Oakland and North Topeka neighborhoods to express their frustrations about the growing homelessness population. She sat down with 27 News Morning Anchor Katie Garceran Thursday morning to explain what she took away from the meeting.
On top of inviting community members to share their stories, the councilwoman also invited city and county leaders, the Topeka Rescue Mission, Valeo Behavioral Health and others.
”The goal was to first and foremost, let the people be heard,” Valdivia-Alcalá said.
Person after person went up and shared their stories of fear and worry for the mental health crisis happening in the area, as well as the drug addiction problem many feel is running rampant.
“People that I represent feeling like there’s not been a lot of movement with issues changing along the encampments, the unsheltered, the mentally-ill in neighborhoods,” Valdivia-Alcalá said.
Valdivia-Alcalá said a lot of community leaders were present and listened to these stories, but there is a large amount of work to do. She emphasized this meeting was meant to give the community a platform for their frustrations.
“This part of the community often is not heard,” she continued. “They’ve been dealing with issues, especially of the chronically unsheltered of a handful of, almost, terrorizing men in the community that get arrested. And it’s a revolving door where they are back out on the streets.”
The councilwoman also expressed her disappointment with Shawnee County District Attorney Mike Kagay‘s absence at the meeting. She said, in the past, Kagay has stated there is criteria a mentally-ill person must meet before they are considered dangerous. Valdivia-Alcalá argues this has already occurred in Oakland.
“It depresses the area. It can impact property values. Both North Topeka and Oakland have a very strong history of people staying in those communities,” she said. “They’ve been there for decades. They’ve been there for generations. So when they see continued diminishment and nothing addressing it, yes, it causes a great deal of anger, frustration, and ‘how do we change this?’”
She commended the city on what it has done to approach the homelessness population so far, but worries it might take too long for how pressing the problem is. Rather, she encourages everyone in the community, in any way they can, to act now.