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Safe and Healthy Housing for Everyone

A Conversation about Renting in Topeka

Renters are impacted directly by changes around neighborhood safety and housing. You are an expert on your own lived experience with renting housing in Topeka. Help shape the local conversation.

For the first time, Topeka's Community Health Improvement Plan includes "Neighborhood Safety and Housing" as a priority area.  When you register, you will be provided with a few pages of advance reading from the "Neighborhood Safety and Housing" section of the Shawnee County Community Health Improvement Plan. It is important to note that though this document identifies workgroups and partnering organizations working towards CHIP strategies, continued engagement from the community is necessary for the improvement efforts outlined in this plan to be achieved and sustained.

We will also contact you for your food preference - all registered attendees will be provided with a boxed lunch including a sandwich/wrap, potato salad or pasta salad, chips and a cookie. 

Our conversation will be facilitated by library staff and focus on the lived experiences of renters in Topeka with housing affordability and livability as it relates to the goals and actions in the "Neighborhood Safety and Housing" priority area of the Community Health Improvement Plan. Many experts and organizations are already working on housing issues. One purpose of this conversation is to broaden the participation of who is getting to talk about these issues and be involved in these issues. We will use conversation strategies to hear from people who are impacted by the decisions of decision makers, and prioritize the perspectives of renters over policy positions. 

According to Livewell Shawnee County:

How does Neighborhood Safety and Housing come into the CHIP?
Where we are affects how we live. From safe streets to stable housing, our environment plays a major role in health. In Shawnee County, In 2023, Shawnee County had 34 homicides—nearly 1 in 3 victims were under 18, and 60% involved firearms. The CHIP includes community-driven strategies to create safer, more stable neighborhoods for all.

What does health equity look like in the CHIP?
Not everyone in Shawnee County has the same opportunity to live a healthy life. Health equity means recognizing and addressing those gaps. In Shawnee County the high infant mortality rate disproportionately affects the Black and Hispanic communities at an alarming rate. The CHIP names equity as a cross-cutting priority—because justice needs to be part of every solution.

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