Wichita residents, housing experts discuss city housing issues

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – Wichita residents and housing experts spoke about housing issues in the city Monday night. The Wichita Journalism Collaborative, which KSN is part of, hosted the event.

The housing inventory in Wichita dominated the discussion at the community listening session.

“I believe housing is the most important thing to stabilize our community, and I know we don’t have enough of it,” said Ann Fox, who attended the listening session.

Fox says creating more housing is a critical part of helping Wichita grow.

“We love to have single-family housing in this community, and we really need to have multi-family housing and many other options for people across the spectrum of life,” said Fox.

Affordability is another need that William Vann says Wichita lacks.

“It might be something as small as two bedrooms and one bath; if those houses are available, and they can be saved and salvaged and rehabbed in time, we can create home ownership at an affordable price,” said Vann.

Others, like Jonathan Roper, say the housing crisis can be helped by the city’s encouragement of people to start their own businesses.

“Yes, it is hard; creating a business is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but so is living paycheck to paycheck. So how does the city incentivize people to take a risk and make sure they have a safety net?” Roper said.

Feedback from the community is helping members of the collaborative guide future reporting.

“The goal is to elevate the collaborative’s reporting so we can really create a clearer picture of what the housing landscape and challenges are in Wichita so we can serve the community better,” said Maren Berblinger, journal engagement manager.