Nonprofit working to bring $400M 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 wraps resources like a rehab center and supportive housing around the state mental health hospital. This is a separate idea from the multi-agency center (MAC) the city is working on.

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

“The whole 70 acres is devoted for the OneRise initiative,” said President of OneRise Matthew Tannehill.

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

Tannehill says this concept is modeled after a Haven For Hope in San Antonio. It has a multitude of resources in one place to help people get back onto their feet. KSN traveled to Texas in 2021 to highlight the facility where 18,000 people have gotten help to transition to permanent housing.

“Permanent supportive housing, childcare center, the federally qualified health care center, then a concept we’re talking about that’s called the community care center, we built pretty quickly and pretty aggressively, from concept to opening, was probably about three years, I’m guessing it might be a little longer here in Wichita,” said Ackerson.

Haven for Hope’s founder, 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 funding sources, including federal funds and capital campaigns.

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Tannehill says the OneRise campus will cost an estimated $400 million and will be tackled in phases as organizations join in.

“That may be doing their capital campaign to building a facility, for others, that may be OneRise leading that endeavor and providing free space for them to co-locate in,” said Tannehill.

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

“I would really hope as OneRise gets this started and as the MAC comes to fruition, that it’s a partnership between each other. Could the MAC be more of an acute care and then what OneRise is doing, can that be more wraparound services and affordable housing,” said Sedgwick County Commissioner Sarah Lopez.

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

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“We’ll provide the homeless outreach center, provide the emergency services, and for those that need extra care, the mental health hospital will be able to take care of those individuals as well,” said Glasscock.

The state’s psychiatric hospital is expected to be completed in 2026. OneRise plans to begin phasing in the other aspects of the grounds here as organizations get on board and move in.

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

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