From the Alvin and Rosalie Sara Check studio PBS Kansas Presents Kansas Week.

A chilling new report warns of a potential health care crisis.

Looming federal cuts could slash billions from Medicaid, leaving hundreds of thousands of Kansans vulnerable and pushing essential rural hospitals closer to the brink.

Plus, can downtown Wichita keep pace with its own revival?

A dramatic study reveals the core of the city needs a massive surge in housing.

And at the same time, Wichita is officially ranked among the nation's best places to live.

But what does that mean for the future of the Air Capital?

All this and much more on this edition of Kansas Week.

Welcome to Kansas week.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

There is good news turning heads for the air capital Wichita has landed on a covenant spot on the livability list of the top 100 best places to Live in the United States for 2025.

The online resource praised Wichita for its affordability, strong community ties, and overall quality of life.

The study focuses on mid-sized cities, calling them the sweet spot for a happy, balanced life.

This national recognition highlights Wichita's growing appeal.

Overland Park and Olathe are the other Kansas City's on the prestigious list, but to truly live up to that potential, especially in the heart of the city, a major transformation is needed.

New research reveals downtown Wichita will need thousands of new homes, potentially doubling its current housing supply in just five years in order to meet rising demand driven by new development.

Ksn's Derrick Lytle reports its growth not seen in years.

It will change in the next five years, much more than it has in decades.

More retail stores, maybe even a grocery store.

Mayor Roose says it's all possible if the population continues to increase in downtown Wichita.

She says biomedical opening is a big step to more people choosing to live in the downtown corridor.

Read more people living in downtown Wichita in order for more vibrancy to happen in the downtown core.

So I'm looking forward to more structures going up.

In five years, downtown could see an additional 3700 units on top of the 3000 available now, doubling availability.

Executive Director of downtown Wichita Heather Schroeder says it's needed as occupancy runs near 95% in the spaces downtown has now.

Or signaling to developers is that the demand is there.

You know, what we really need now is for the development sector to step up and provide those units to supply them to the market.

She says the biggest challenge to get developers to create more family friendly spots, like townhomes, to keep young professionals interested in starting their next chapter, staying in the heart of the city.

Build housing for people's entire life cycle downtown.

That way, you don't have to leave your friends and neighbors when you move to the next cycle of your life.

Investing in downtown.

Opening the doors to future business.

And here to talk about this and some of the week's other big stories.

We've got a full panel today.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell, Democrats presented at Ford car from Wichita.

Republican State representative Nick Hodges, all of Wichita and Wichita Eagle opinion editor Diane Leffler, thank you all for joining us today.

Jim Howell, I'll start with you.

The report says we currently have 3000 units.

That seems about accurate, but we need to more than double that 35.

Is that even achievable at this point?

Well, there's a lot of stuff going on downtown right now.

And I think it, it will happen.

The bioscience, campus facility is going to be a catalyst for, for much of that growth.

And there is a lot of people who are connected to that that absolutely, absolutely want to live downtown.

So I believe that since there's a demand, many of the developers are tuned in right now, there's a there's just so many projects downtown that are already being discussed and planned.

I actually do think it's possible.

There's been a lot of units added in the last few years as well.

I think that we don't really understand how many people are actually living downtown already.

We're at 95% at and see on what we already have.

And then it's surprising to me, actually, there seems like if you look around, there's actually a lot of housing down there.

But, you know, we have some we have some challenges.

I think people need to feel safe downtown.

And when they walk around outside their home, they have to feel safe.

And so issues of homelessness and mental health and really crime are topics that I see.

You know, Lily Wu, Mayor Wu was very tuned into this.

We have some challenges for this growth to happen.

So I do think there's opportunity, we have an awful lot on the table here, but, time will tell.

Representative Hodges, all we saw seemed like a boom in apartment units being added from 2010 to 2020, and it seems like that's subsided now.

Yeah, definitely.

Especially downtown.

I think the question that goes with this, and I was downtown the other day, and, I was by the biomed center and it is coming along nicely and it's good to see.

I know the city Council has made it a priority to kind of focus on infill the downtown core.

The question becomes, how do we incentivize the developers to to build these, to these apartments or these, townhomes downtown?

What do the incentive packages look like as well?

I'm sure that's going to be a big discussion.

But if supply if the supply is there, why do we need to incentivize developers?

Well, I mean, developers are always going to ask for incentives that that is always that request is always going to be there.

And how many of these units are going to be geared towards affordable housing as well?

So I think those are kind of questions that as we attract these developers and as we keep building downtown, the questions that our community and our city council are going to have to face represented of car.

Tell me your thoughts.

I'm going to agree, partially with what you had to say.

With respect to, if we build them, they will come.

I don't, I don't think that that the incentivizing is going to be necessary.

What my, more major concern is, how do we keep them here?

That's the question after they finish the school.

Yes, yes, after they finish the school.

What do we do to keep them here?

You know, just just just how how diverse of an area are we going to have in that downtown corridor?

With with things for, for many people to do.

You know, I would say that, you know, today, if you are, certainly, Caucasian and over 40, then downtown is just where you want to be.

There are lots of things to do down there, but but for the, for the younger and more diverse generation, what do they do?

You know, we've got to look at that if we're going to look at keeping them here.

Dion Lefler, tell me your thoughts.

Well, the affordability of that housing is yes, the biggest issue I was looking at rent it some some of those are more than $2,000 a month to a number 3000.

It's crazy.

And and the fact of it is, I mean I mean, we've put millions and millions and millions of dollars into this and, you know, it's hard for me to express my civic pride at knowing that we as taxpayers, spent millions of dollars to shore up a parking garage so that some of the wealthiest people in this city can get the rooftop swimming pool that their apartment building deserves.

But they say if they don't get those incentives, it's here.

To my guys.

They say if they don't get those incentives, they won't.

They won't build.

That's what they say.

I don't think it's ever been tested, but I mean, we are guaranteeing them profits.

That's the that's what we're doing.

We are we are recalculating the subsidies that we're giving to these projects based on what a developer thinks that he should make on his property.

And, you know, at some point it's got to stop because we are putting too much money into this.

We're putting more money into these things than we can expect to get back from taxes.

So everybody else in the city is going to be subsidizing this.

In a response from Jim.

Go ahead.

Well, I was I was just going to say someone mentioned affordable housing a minute ago.

These these students down there again, this is their AQ and WSU partnership if you will.

But this school is not cheap.

These students are paying a lot of money to go to the school easily.

Students coming in there with very, you know, a high cost of schooling.

And again, they're looking at me live in an apartment that me 2003 thousand, maybe even more dollars per month.

So this idea of affordable housing is really not the topic here.

It's about finding spaces that are kind of luxurious.

And downtown, there's a there's a cool thing about being downtown.

If you have you have a lot of people like yourself downtown that are going to have a lot of fun, be by having people who they can hang out with and that type of thing.

But it's really not about just trying to find housing for someone who needs a place to live.

This is specialized housing.

And again, that's that, that entire, campus is expected to have more than 3000 students and I think to over 2000 instructors.

And so it's a large operation down there.

So anybody who's connected to that are going to if they want to live down there, we are going to have to have those units.

Well, I mean, if you put eight if you put eight college kids into one of these, you know, $2,000 units, I guess it pencils out.

Yeah.

They'll all chip in.

Yeah.

You know, but a new report warns of a potentially devastating impact on Kansas health care.

Analyzing proposed federal Medicaid cuts.

The study says Kansas could lose more than $350 million next year alone, and more than $3 billion over the next decade.

The research, conducted by Reach Health Care Foundation and United Methodist Health Ministry.

It indicates that these cuts could severely limit coverage for vulnerable Kansans and push already struggling rural hospitals even closer to the brink.

And at the end of the story, there mentioned rural and rural Kansas is going to suffer the most from this.

It seems like to me, Representat you know, a lot of this, in my opinion, it falls on the shoulders of US legislators.

You know, I think, we've turned away, what's nearly $5 billion?

And what we could have gotten if if we would have expanded Medicaid, you know, moving forward with the with the cuts in mind, you know, one just has to has the question, where would we be had we received that additional 5 billion?

Yeah.

Representative Ohio's expanding Medicaid.

So expanding Medicaid, you're going to see, I think, here in the coming couple of years, the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid are going to run into issues as the federal government starts to pull away from that 9010 match.

And they're going to have to basically kick these folks off Medicaid, or they're going to supplement those funds with state dollars.

Now, we run into a problem in Kansas.

If we had to supplement those funds with state dollars, I believe in 2028, 2029, we're already running a budget deficit as it is.

So, as far as these cuts from the federal government right now, I would just caution the federal government.

Scalpel.

Not chainsaw, not butcher knife.

Be precise in what you're trying to do.

I know that the president's trying to scale back spending.

Our federal deficit is.

I think Jim's got some numbers there.

$36 trillion.

I believe our debt interest payment on on our federal deficit is about $1 trillion on its own.

So just let's make sure that what we are reducing or what we are cutting, though, it's the least impactful to citizens.

Diane, I'll bring you in here at the state level tax cuts or should we continue down the road of these state level tax cuts with all of this in mind?

Well, you know, I'm sitting here and we're you know, we got two legislators and a county commissioner.

And you know, if the federal government's not going to fund this stuff, if we want it, we're going to have to and you know, yeah, tax cuts are tax cuts are nice.

But you know, it's it's just the federal government, the Trump administration literally just doesn't care about us.

They don't care about poor people's health care.

They have absolutely no interest in in having anything to do dealing with that.

And and this is the new reality that we're going to have to face.

Kim.

How's it listen, the reason that Medicaid expansion has been such a hot topic, people view this is free money and you're helping out the the the program was designed for indigent and disabled people.

It was not designed for anybody.

Everybody working actually able-bodied adults that could work without dependents.

But that's the audience we're talking about.

In this case, if go from the 9010 share probably to a 6040 share like the other Medicaid recipients, that is unaffordable.

And again, I think actually probably does belong at the state.

I don't think the feds should be involved in our state Medicaid program.

It should be mostly done by by by state government.

It should be for our local people.

And I think if we're going to do this at all and you have to have a work requirement built in because you got to be able to transition people again as a temporary, temporary opportunity, say, we're going help you for a short time, but you have to move into providing for yourself.

It's intended to be transitional, not to be long term dependent, if you will.

Forward.

Let me give you last word.

I think you disagree with our decisions.

You know, we have this conversation now, in 2025, and we could have been taking advantage of those funds since as far back as 2014.

You know, poor decisions, at the state level.

And that's, that's the reason that we're looking at what we're looking at now.

And again, the cuts by the Trump administration, they're just horrendous.

I don't know how, it's going to be interesting moving forward, how we how we navigate through that quickly.

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

Diane.

Okay.

The people that we're talking about here, they are working people.

If you're making so little that, you know, if you if you don't have any income or you're or you're on on public assistance, basically, then you're covered by Medicaid.

And if you make above a certain amount, you're covered by the by the Obamacare.

It's that donut hole in the middle.

It's that slice of people who are working people, but they are working poor.

And frankly, putting a job requirement of putting a work requirement on it doesn't make any sense, because if they weren't sick, they'd be working.

Okay, they'll give that the last word to Diane.

We'll move on.

A local organization that serves some of our community's most vulnerable children is now also facing an unexpected financial blow.

Tonight, Sedgwick County Casa provides volunteer advocates for children in foster care.

It's losing a key source of federal funding, Cydney Ferguson tells us, and examines how this could mean, or what this could mean for local efforts to support foster children.

As executive director for Sedgwick County, Casa Kim Gersten Corn does many things, including apply for grants that help the organization serve foster children.

We provide unique advocacy that children experiencing foster care or otherwise, would not have court appointed special advocates or Casa volunteers help children in court and at their placement homes as they navigate the foster system.

Recently, Gersten Korn learned she'll no longer be able to apply for the grants from Casa's parent organization that helped them do this work.

It was shocking.

It just was very unexpected.

Like those grant applications have been removed from their website.

What is on the website?

A press release explaining National Casa is one of 360 organization to receive a notice of termination of federal funds from the Department of Justice, Casa's main source of funding for the past 40 years.

It creates a lot of uncertainty for our program and how will receive funding in the future, but also the two Kansas Casa programs that were already receiving funding.

Two other Casa branches that serve Kansas lost $175,000 total, and Sedgwick County Casa won't be able to apply for the $25,000 it needed to make up for lost funding and serve more children, with over 1400 children in foster care.

We're starving right now, about 107.

And so we just really need to grow to provide services to more of those children.

The Department of Justice says the 360 organizations, it could no longer align with the department's goal of protecting children.

It was shocking to hear that the decision was made that we don't align with their program goals because, that's exactly what we're working for, is to provide safety to children.

Gersten Korn says it's unclear what the future holds for the organization, but for now, it'll have to build relationships and find other sources of funding.

In Wichita, Sydnee Ferguson Kake news on your side.

So we've pretty much established that this is likely due to DOJ's cuts at the federal level.

I've been asking all along here, why do all of these federal cuts have to happen in the middle of the year?

Why can't we do this at the appropriations level at the end of the year?

Why do we have to strip what's already been budgeted no matter what it is, whether it's foster kids, whether it's air traffic controllers or what representative are we governing?

By executive order.

You know, that's the question.

You know, my colleague said earlier that, the Trump administration just simply doesn't care about people.

Well, clearly they don't care about children either.

So, I don't know.

I just I think it's terrible what's taking place, in our nation's capital, and and hopefully in, in 26, we can show up at the ballot box and make a change, at least at the state level.

Well, I think the, the budget process is going to trail the executive orders, but the executive orders is more timely.

The end of the day, again, I think Trump, you know, again, he has for years.

He's got to get the country back on its feet.

What we're doing right now in the country is unsustainable.

We have, again, nearly $37 trillion in debt.

Much of this programing from the federal government is inappropriate.

It should be done at the local level.

I'm a huge fan of Casa.

These kids need the help.

They need the fundraising to get people here to to engage on what this is and to help these kids.

It's a it's a worthy program, but the federal government doesn't have to be the one to do it.

At the end of the day, we value the program.

We need to support it.

Meanwhile, the country's going down the toilet.

If we don't get a handle on the finances of this country, it's unsustainable.

And Trump is has urgency.

So that's why they're saying go ahead.

No, the country is going down the toilet.

But Trump.

And to make it any better.

And I guess, you're a Sedgwick County commissioner.

I mean, are you going to allocate the money to keep Casa going?

Well, again, I think this ought to be, supported from private sector as much as possible here.

At the end of the day, people don't want more tax increases here either.

So if I say if I say tax increases to provide these services or do neither, people are going to say, cut my taxes.

So this has to be something where I think people who understand the program, churches especially, need to step up and provide help to these, these types of programs.

So basically the let me move on to Representative Hall.

Let me let you shine in here.

Jim said something about tax cuts.

The president is now saying in the past couple of weeks now that we're going to start seeing federal tax cuts, income tax cuts.

Do we believe that?

Yeah.

Well, I know there's a discussion on renewing the Trump tax cuts.

That's been going on for a while now.

Of these 300 plus programs that have been cut, I will say the appropriations process does fall to the to Congress.

So I think you'll see some of the funding restored to some of these programs.

To Diane's point, he made earlier.

The cuts that happened on In cost was a great program, and I fully support it.

The cuts that are happening on the federal level, the onus is going to fall on us locally and the state to pick up the slack.

So this is a conversation we will have to have, next session, I assume.

I'm sure it's going to happen.

But I agree with Jim's point, though, that, we need to as a local community, if it's faith based, if it's private sector, step up and help pick up some of that slack.

All right.

Our next story.

Wednesday was the 50th anniversary of a pivotal moment in history.

The fall of Saigon, which effectively ended the Vietnam War.

And while the conflict was halfway around the world, its impact is still deeply felt right here in Kansas.

As O'Brien shows us.

50 years ago today, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell, marking the end of the Vietnam War.

On this day, dozens meet in Wichita honoring lives lost and those who still carry the war with them.

All these guys went overseas to serve to, serve our nation, and they came home and didn't get very much recognition.

Rick Dodson, a veteran whose father served in World War Two, says the memories hit closer to home when he sees the names etched in stone.

I knew of a couple from my hometown I lived in Bonham, grew up in Bonham, Texas, and that got killed over there, and I had several classmates that went over.

None of them were killed, but they had a lot of trauma when they got back and it, stayed with them even till today.

Tin Nguyen is one of the people spending a Wednesday afternoon in Veteran's Memorial Park, remembering lives lost and a home he had to leave forever.

A long time ago, we worked together in Vietnam.

We fighting for freedom.

Nguyen says he brought his family from Vietnam to the U.S. in the 1990s.

Before that, he spent six years in a reeducate Asian camp, which he says was more like a jail.

I never think I come here.

I think I die in jail or a man over here in jail in Vietnam.

Nguyen, now president of a Veterans of Vietnam War group, helped organize a ceremony in Wichita to remember what April 30th means to his community.

Freedom not free.

Not why Vietnamese people over here always remem.

As flags are lowered, the names of those lost are remembered.

You see the number 58,000 in Vietnam that we lost.

And that's a big number.

And then you kind of see these memorials in local, cities and counties, and it gets a lot closer to home than in Wichita.

Lily O'Brien Kake, news on your side.

Commissioner Hall, I believe you're the only veteran at this table.

So let me let me turn it over to you.

I love our veterans, and I'm a I'm a very strong member of the American Legion and VFW here in the local community.

I can tell you there's a lot of folks there that are really haunted by memories of their service at the Vietnam War.

And, you know, they saw a lot of death, a lot of just horrible things they can't even talk about.

And, while those folks are still sick because of what they've, sacrificed when they went over overseas to provide help to, people who needed that help.

And we lost 58,000, American soldiers, men and women that served this country with honor.

It is a, really a sad part of our history.

It's so important that we recognize that and again, show Thanksgiving.

When they came back from war, they were, they were, you know, spat upon.

They were because they were not honored.

And so we have work to do to show honor and respect to the people who really gave their lives and their blood to help people around the world that needed that help.

And so I love these people.

It is absolutely worth it.

We remember them today.

All right.

Our last story today, Kansas, taking a significant step in the fight against homelessness.

Last week, officials and providers across the state launched a six month action plan as Kansas officially became what they call a built for zero state.

The goal is to reach what's called functional zero, a milestone meaning communities are housing more people than are experiencing homelessness.

The statewide effort focusing on better data and coordinated systems.

It aims to make homelessness rare and brief.

Five regional teams are now working toward this benchmark, hoping to make a measurable difference in the lives of vulnerable Kansans.

You know, we often hear this catchphrase now a functional zero.

Mayor Lily Lou made it a big phrase.

And in her campaign.

What is functional?

Zero.

Is there an explanation as to what that really is?

I mean, I touched on it a little bit in the story, but yeah, I mean, you're never going to hit absolute zero.

What?

I worry, homelessness should always be the goal, but it's not based in reality.

So functional zero I think is a threshold that you're going to hit to where you consider yourself.

Zero.

It's great to see another initiative to to combat homelessness here in Wichita.

I had an opportunity yesterday, to go over to the Breakthrough Club there, doing great things there.

I got to meet some folks.

See some of the program there.

It's right next to Park Elementary, the new Mack Center.

Really encouraged about the progress that's made with the Mac as well.

We have a long ways to go here in Wichita.

Diane, I don't know the statistics, but I've heard that the Mac is not being used at its capacity at this point.

Do you have any information about that?

I don't have any directly.

But in fact, you know, the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, people who are experiencing this condition of being unhoused, some of them won't go to an institution.

They just won't go.

And you know that, you know, I mean, it's something what this community needs to realize is that fighting homelessness is not an event.

It's a process.

And that's what I mean.

We always come at it with the we always come at it with the event in mind.

You know, we're going to build this thing.

We're going to do this thing.

But, you know, maybe we need to meet these people where they are.

Tim, how?

Well, you know, the Mac is still Mac is still ramping up.

It has is brand new.

We haven't even got the services in place.

The Mac is designed to take a smaller number of homeless folks who want to have help and provide all the services we can to get them stable, get them sober, get them employable, provide, you know, clothing and haircuts and hygiene and, you know, ways to actually get jobs.

And it does a great job keeping them from homelessness.

They get out of homelessness forever.

That's what is supposed to do for 30s.

The Mac was a great idea.

But we've got to we've got to keep in mind that it's not the end all.

Save all.

You know, we're still going to have a homeless problem.

You know, even if the Mac is up and running at full capacity, you know, we just have to be compassionate as a community.

And understand that this is something that we're going to have to work through, in the days, in the days coming forward.

And that's a wrap for this week, thanks to Jim Howell, Ford Carr, Nicole Hazel, and Diane Leffler for participating.

And thanks to Cake and Carson for sharing your stories with us.

I'm Jared Cirillo.

We'll see you again next week.