A nonprofit working to bring a $400 million mental health campus to Wichita

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) – New details have been released about a nonprofit’s effort to bring a $400 million mental health campus to Wichita with the help of state and county leaders.

The vision includes resources such as a rehabilitation center and supportive housing around the state mental health hospital. This is a different idea from the multi-agency center (MAC) the city is working on.

The campus will be located on 70 acres of land near MacArthur and Meridian. The state psychiatric hospital will be the first building constructed.

“All 70 acres are dedicated to the OneRise initiative,” said OneRise President Matthew Tannehill.

The property here in Wichita will include a community care center, permanent supportive housing, child care, a rehabilitation center and ICT Farms that will provide a 30-acre farm to address food insecurity.

Tannehill says this concept is based on a Haven For Hope in San Antonio. It has tons of resources in one place to help people recover. KSN traveled to Texas in 2021 to highlight the facility where 18,000 people have received help transitioning to permanent housing.

“The permanent supportive housing, the child care center, the federally qualified health care center, then a concept that we’re talking about called a community care center, we built quite quickly and quite aggressively, from From concept to opening, it was probably about three years, I guess it might be a little longer here in Wichita,” Ackerson said.

The founder of Haven for Hope, who is the CEO and Chairman of Valero Energy, was a major fundraiser and personally donated more than $40 million to Haven of Hope and its partners. The OneRise campus will need several sources of funding, including federal funds and capital campaigns.

Tannehill says the OneRise campus will cost about $400 million and will be approached in phases as organizations come on board.

“That may be doing their capital campaign to build a facility, for others, that may be OneRise leading that effort and providing free space for them to be located there,” Tannehill said.

City and county leaders say they believe both this campus and the MAC can work together to address mental health and homelessness.

“I really hope that when OneRise starts this and the MAC comes to fruition, that it’s a partnership between them. If the MAC could be more acute care and then what OneRise does, that could be a more comprehensive service and housing affordable,” said Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez.

Wichita City Councilman Dalton Glasscock agrees. He believes the MAC near downtown will be the city’s short-term answer to getting people off the streets, while the hospital campus has a long-term role.

“We’ll provide the homeless drop-in center, we’ll provide the emergency services, and for those who need additional care, the mental health hospital will be able to serve those people as well,” Glasscock said.

The state psychiatric hospital is expected to be completed by 2026. OneRise plans to gradually begin introducing the other aspects of the site here as organizations come on board and settle in.

The 70 hectares of land are owned by Lange Real Estate. However, Tannehill says they agree with the campus vision. Lange has already donated 11 acres for the location of the hospital.