Topeka City Council working to address homelessness, planning for redistricting

TOPEKA (KSNT) - Redistricting was one of the many topics discussed at Tuesday night's Topeka City Council meeting. Councilwoman Christina Valdivia-Alcala stopped by 27 News to tell us about it and other things happening around town.

Redistricting is based on how much the population changes in Topeka, some neighborhoods might have a higher population than others. After Tuesday's meeting, the city council will meet one or two more times in November to discuss and create a final map. The goal of the council members is to vote on the proposed map by Dec. 30.

Valdivia-Alcala said on November 1st, some employees of the city will be working with housing services as they introduce equity access shelter. Very few details have been released so far, but she said they've gotten some good ideas working on it the past year with "built for zero components" which seeks to handle the most difficult cases of chronic unsheltered.

"I know that that may sound a bit vague, but once the rollout goes out, you're really going to see a difference in what we hope in the next year or two a real reduction in the number of homeless and chronic unsheltered," Valdivia-Alcala said.

You can watch the full video above. For more information on the Topeka City Council, click here.