By Joe Jarosz
Northeast News
July 8, 2015

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Residents of the Chouteau Court apartment buildings are entering the digital age with the help of Google.

Last week, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held at the Chouteau Court Community Center, located within the Chouteau Court apartments, for a computer lab. The lab — which spawned from a partnership between Google and the Housing Authority of Kansas City — includes seven brand new computers equipped with Google Fiber internet as Google paves the way to improve digital literacy efforts within Kansas City and abroad.

Roughly 50 residents and city officials gathered to see the new lab and learn about how it will help the community in their day-to-day lives. Edwin Lowndes, executive director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City, said internet access and the digital divide affects a lot of people the Housing Authority serves.

“Internet access means so much today,” Lowndes said. “The opportunity to use the internet in an environment such as this, something that you don’t usually see in public housing. We’re very excited about this partnership. We know this is the first of many ventures with Google Fiber to bring internet access to families who would not otherwise have it.”

For those keeping track, however, officials within the Housing Authority of Kansas City are working on a plan to raze the buildings and relocate the nearly 500 Chouteau Courts residents to smaller mixed-income sites within the next five to 10 years. The plan also aims to improve education, business development and social services of the area, which is located just northwest of Independence Avenue and the Paseo. Lowndes said replacement is still in the works, but a longterm goal of the city’s.

“In the interim, our partnership with Google Fiber allowed us an opportunity to not only bring internet access to where we would replace the housing in the future but meets the immediate needs of the families we serve now and live here today,” Lowndes said. “Because we know it will be at least five years before the families are gone from Chouteau Courts, we want to make sure we provide internet service here today so that the families we’re serving today may not need the affordable housing when we do replace Chouteau Courts.”

The partnership, which began to take steam this past January, also calls for staff from the Housing Authority to visit the community center from time to time as they head classes on digital literacy, which will help equip residents to look for jobs and research government services that might benefit them.

“This is a comprehensive opportunity to bring the hardware and software as well as the training to show folks the power of the internet,” Lowndes said. “You can’t even apply for a minimum wage job today without the internet. And if you don’t know how to use it or don’t have access to it, then you’re really left behind. That’s that digital divide.”

Brigette Smith, one of the residents who attended last week’s ribbon cutting, said she’s excited for the computer lab at her apartment complex because even though she has internet in her apartment, she admitted she’s, “not too good” with the computer.

“I’ll be up here working on the computers,” Smith said. “I’ll be here while my kids are at school and learn.”

Smith added she’s also been spreading the word to neighbors, to make sure the computer lab doesn’t collect dust.

“I told them let’s get on there, let’s look for jobs and let’s get together and do something positive where we can succeed somewhere else,” Smith said.