Modeling Our Way Toward Health
At the beginning of 2025, I sat down with the newly released America’s Health Rankings and felt a genuine sense of encouragement. Kansas had moved from #29 to #28 in
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Commentary
Why Hi-Crest Is Not the Exception
Recently, the work of SENT in the Hi-Crest neighborhood was recognized by the Kansas Department of Commerce through the Community Empowerment Program with its highest designation, Community of Excellence. We
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Does Mixed-Income Housing Displace Residents?
A Thoughtful Look at Research and Our Practice This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it
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Financial Health of Topeka with additional data on Blacks in Topeka – December 2025
(Using Shawnee County – Central / Topeka City data as the closest ZIP-level proxy) Source: Urban Institute, Financial Health & Wealth Dashboard (2025). Daily Finances 27% of residents have delinquent
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The Crisis We Don’t Want to See, and the Hope We Cannot Ignore
I struggle with the tension. In Topeka and in communities like ours across the country, we are caught between two competing realities. The first is the one splashed across headlines:
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More Homes, More Stability: Why SENT Is Using Manufactured and Panelized Housing in 2026
In almost every community conversation about housing, someone eventually says some version of: “We need affordable housing, but we don’t want those kinds of homes.” I understand where that fear
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A Stable Home Is One of the Strongest Investments a Community Can Make
At SENT, we often say that housing is not just shelter. It is health infrastructure. It is education infrastructure. It is economic infrastructure. Johnson-Betts Meadows was designed with this belief
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Does Mixed-Income Housing Displace Residents? A Thoughtful Look at Research and Our Practice
This is a question we hear often, and it is a fair one. When people have seen neighborhoods change without protections, it makes sense to ask whether new housing, even
We Get What We Measure: Why Prevention Must Become Kansas’ New Standard for Safety and Well Being
We are again mourning the loss of life in our city. Once more, we are confronted with the reality that violence in Topeka is not an isolated event. It is
Why a Wrap-Around Model Works: Moving the Needle on Thriving in Topeka
Every day, neighbors walk through SENT’s doors carrying stories that span far beyond a single need. A mother searching for stable housing is also trying to find child care so
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