HUD awards Iowa Tribe housing authority $1M for new elder community center
WHITE CLOUD, Kansas. (KQTV)-- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced it awarded the Housing Authority of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska a $1 million Fiscal Year 2025 Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG).
The federal grant will help fund the construction of a new, approximately 3,000-square-foot elder community building and meal site on the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska Reservation.
The fully accessible facility will be centrally located within the Tribe's growing elder housing development and will provide a welcoming space for congregate meals, elder activities, cultural programming, wellness services, caregiver support and community gatherings.
“Our community center that we have is so small, and they have outgrown it, so we are going to do an elderly village with duplexes, and that senior center is going to go right in the middle and will develop the duplexes around it," said Bradley Campbell, executive director of the Housing Authority for the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.
Campbell said the goal is to make it easier for residents to step outside their front doors and immediately connect with the community.
He said the project is especially meaningful for the elderly community because it brings important services closer to home.
“For a lot of them, this might be their only meal they get during the day and they will be right there without having to worry about driving or transportation, especially if the weather is bad,” he said.
Residents who need assistance carrying their groceries or other items will also be able to get help from staff, something Campbell said will help create a more welcoming environment.
Campbell said receiving the award had been in the works for some time.
“We weren’t really shocked when we got the award; we kind of figured because the Department of housing urban development really likes the project that benefits the elderly,” he added.
The project is still in the design phase, so Campbell said there isn't a timeline yet for when construction will begin or be completed.
For now, the housing authority is focused on finishing its housing development. Once that's complete, Campbell said work will shift to the new project.
Ultimately, he said the goal is to bring more community resources and activities to elderly residents living in the housing development.
“A lot of them don’t live down there now because they don’t have a place to live but with us putting our elder village in and having them come back to the community will be beneficial to them,” Campbell said.
The award marks another step in the housing authority's effort to create safe, affordable housing while building a supportive community where residents can live close to family, culture, health care, meals and other essential services.
