Northeast News
January 21, 2015

Well the folks down in the Waldo area are hoppin’ mad at reStart Inc., for practicing the Housing and Urban Development’s scattered site model. This newsdog has learned through the city’s most prolific blogger (Tony’s Kansas City) that reStart has slated the 75th and Washington Streets area for a 14 unit apartment building for young adults with mental disabilities who have, “aged out of foster care.”

Note to the Waldo residents advocating the project go somewhere in “the hood,” we’re already highly impacted with that type of thing and this news-dog is pleased that other locations are being considered for such an undertaking. It’s about time a project like this was located somewhere other than in the confines, of or on the border, of the Historic Northeast. The social service agency density in and around HNE has pegged the maximum meter.

Fact: Historic Northeast has more food pantries, feeding programs, refugee re-settlement programs and social service agencies per capita than any other area of the city. Some of the agencies running said programs don’t even keep track of the number of refugees placed in a specific building or ZIP code despite Federal guidelines that mandate such information be recorded. Don’t get this news-dog wrong, such programs are vital to the basic survival of some people and we give generously to some of the selected groups operating here, City Union Mission being one. This news-canine has long advocated, however, against the concentration of such a demographic in such a small geographic area. The news that reStart is taking their show on the road is heartening. Somehow though, we don’t think everyone is happy.