WICHITA, Kan. (KMUW) — About one-third of the city’s 352 single-family public housing units were still occupied as of last December. The city is offering housing vouchers to the tenants who have to move.
On a lazy Sunday morning in July, the heat is creeping into the 90s before the clock hits noon.
Danielle Lenz sits on her front porch in a lawn chair, keeping an eye on her mischievous six-year old, who’s found a set of car keys.
“Avyon, you need to come here. Right now,” Lenz said. “He knows how – I don’t know if he knows how to unlock, but I know he knows how to get in the car.”
Two years ago, she didn’t know that this sunflower yellow rental home near downtown was where her family would end up. Lenz and her four kids were living in public housing in west Wichita when the news hit in 2022 that the city planned to sell their home – and the 351 other single-family public housing units scattered throughout town.
Initially, she wanted to buy the house herself, but she says she later changed her mind due to its poor condition. Instead, last winter she found a private landlord to accept the housing voucher the city gave her as a form of rental assistance to replace public housing.
“It’s probably a good thing that we moved from over there. Because they would only fix things … if it had to be fixed,” Lenz said. “Other than that, they didn’t fix it because they didn’t have the funding to do so. Renting to a regular landlord I think is a little bit better.”
As of last December, 110 of the city’s single-family public housing units were occupied. By the end of June, about 60 of those households had been impacted by the city’s sale of public housing, according to the city of Wichita. Each had the option to receive a voucher to help with rent, and a city contractor recommends an available housing unit to tenants and also pays for moving assistance.
“Our relocation coordinator is constantly working to reach out, stop by the house if they haven’t been able to make contact,” Sarah Gooding, who oversees public housing for Wichita, said in a presentation about the city’s Affordable Housing Fund. “And so it is designed to be a very warm handoff process. Tenants have the right to not engage, but nobody should find themselves homeless, if they engage in the process.”
According to the city, about one-third of impacted tenants have taken vouchers — commonly known as Section 8 — and are in new housing. The rest moved into the private housing market without any government assistance, remain in limbo as they search for new housing, faced eviction or purchased a public housing unit.
Edward Goetz, a professor of urban planning at the University of Minnesota, has studied how the sale or demolition of public housing impacts tenants.
He said some residents feel trapped in public housing. For them, the sale can be a great opportunity to move using a new housing voucher. But Goetz says that sentiment is not universal.
“For at least half – if not most – of the tenants of public housing, this is not a welcome move,” Goetz said. “And it ends up being a fairly significant disruption in their lives. They may lose connections with their community, or at least have those disrupted significantly. And it may disrupt job and educational opportunities as well.”
Most tenants move to private rental housing, some use vouchers
Twenty-two tenants, like Lenz, have taken the rental voucher – also known as Section 8 – and are safely in new housing.
The move was not easy for her four children, three of whom had to change schools. They switched homes in January, so the house – and tree – was packed up during Christmas. Lenz said other downsides of the new house are higher utility bills and less storage space.
But Lenz said ultimately, her kids are adjusting to their new schools and the new neighborhood is satisfactory.
“It’s very quiet at night,” Lenz said. “Our neighbors over here, they’ve lived here for many years.”
Kassandra Lucero, another tenant, has also locked down a new place to live with her voucher. In early June, a paper sign hung from her living room wall: “Two days left until MOVING DAY!!” The family had plans to move from south Wichita to Park City.
Lucero said the moving process was hasty and stressful. She said she reached out to a lot of housing options to find a place to use her voucher – and got “a lot of no’s.” But she finally connected on Facebook with a landlord who was touched to learn about Lucero’s small business working with kids with disabilities.
“I think I started crying a little bit,” said Lucero, of the moment her landlord told her he would accept the voucher.
“It was a huge weight lifted because I definitely was at a point where time was ticking. And we had our little countdown on the wall and we were down to 20-some days left. And we had no plan.”
Thirteen public housing tenants moved to the private housing market without any government assistance, according to the city of Wichita.
Gooding said there’s several reasons why tenants may move without using rental assistance. They may have an income that is too high to qualify for a housing voucher. Others may have lease violations and choose to move to avoid eviction. Still others may purchase houses on the private market.
Some tenants stuck in limbo, while others buy houses or face eviction
As of late June, nine tenants were not yet relocated and five had been transferred to different public housing units in South City.
Many are stuck because they can’t find a landlord who will accept their voucher. Landlords do not have to accept governmental rental assistance, and tenants across Kansas have complained for years about difficulties finding housing. It’s particularly difficult for large families needing many bedrooms, Gooding said.
That’s the case for Abdul Satar. He and his wife have seven children and have lived in public housing for seven years. Satar said he’s called more than 100 potential landlords since March, but it’s tough to find a large house in a safe part of town that also accepts his voucher. He even recruited his 13-year-old son to email potential landlords.
Satar said he would prefer to stay put.
“This (is) very bad,” Satar said. “It’s very difficult to find the schools and then change the address and move the stuff and we’ll set up again.
“For everyone – not only me, every single person – if you’re moving from one location to another location, especially the big families, it is very difficult.”
Satar said the city told him in June that his family could stay in public housing while he keeps looking for a place.
Aziz Ahmadzai, another tenant, has a similar experience to Satar. With a full-time job and six kids, he hasn’t had time to look for a new house. Last winter, the city began preparing to sell the north Wichita house where his family lived. Ahmadzai said the city relocated his family to another public housing unit in south Wichita since they didn’t yet have a plan for where to go. He said he hasn’t been given a deadline for how long his family can stay.
He’s not ecstatic that his family had to move, after living in north Wichita for seven years. But he said the city has done a wonderful job accommodating the tenants.
“They did everything for me,” Ahmadzai said. “They did my move. They sent the semi-truck with a big container, and they loaded it by themselves. They helped us a lot. So, I am really appreciative to them.”
The city said it has evicted five tenants for lease violations. Public housing tenants also had the first option to buy the units they lived in. In 2022, housing director Sally Stang told the City Council that the department offered to connect tenants with financial literacy classes and programs that help with down payment savings.
“We’d like to see as many as possible actually be able to buy the home they’re in,” Stang said.
Satar said he wanted to buy the house he lives in, but he wasn’t able to secure the loan or down payment necessary. So far, just five of the 59 impacted tenants have either bought their homes or have contracts pending.
Shana Ramey is one of them. She closed on her house in April.
“When I closed, it was a different feeling when I walked in,” Ramey said. “It was no longer a house, it was my home. And it was like a whole new breath of air. No worries if we were going to be kicked out. … It was – we’re here forever. And next generations will be in this house.”
Celia Hack is a general assignment reporter for KMUW, where she covers everything from housing to environmental issues to Sedgwick County. Before KMUW, she worked at The Wichita Beacon covering local government and as a freelancer for The Shawnee Mission Post and the Kansas Leadership Center’s The Journal. She is originally from Westwood, Kansas, but Wichita is her home now.
This article was produced as part of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative, which includes KMUW and 10 other organizations and community groups, including KSN-TV.