University Daily Kansan / Friday, October 11, 1991
9
House for mentally ill in operation
KU alumnus' donation helps get building; 20 to 30 people still wait for housing
By Kerrie Gottschalk
Kansan staff writer
Five people who might have been sleeping in an abandoned car or living in a roach-infested room now have a safe and clean permanent home.
Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center kicked off Mental Illness Awareness Week by opening a house for the chronically mentally ill in need of permanent housing.
"It is the first of its kind in Douglas County," said Pat Houston Davis, public relations official at Bert Nash.
The house was acquired through a federal grant and private donations, including a $100,000 donation made by KU alumnus Charles Oldfather and his wife. Tensie.
The house, at 911 Ohio St., is now home to
five mentally ill people. The opening marks just the beginning of a long road to provide housing for the chronically mentally ill in Douglas County, some mental health professionals and consumers said.
sociums and communities.
Twenty to 30 other people still are waiting for permanent housing, said Bill Simons, director of Project Acceptance, a self-help and advocacy group for people with chronic mental illness.
"We were formed in 1976 and one of the two goals we had was to secure housing for chori-men."
He said that without the Oldfather donation, the opening of the house might have been delayed another one or two years.
Judy Arentson, president of the Douglas County Families for Mental Health, said the opening of the house had been the result of a
long and sometimes discouraging process
She said her group approached the Douglas County Commission in 1985 and voiced concerns about the increasing need for housing for the mentally ill.
Arentson said a lack of funds had been the biggest roadblock to acquire and provide housing
Several grant proposals have been written and denied during the last few years, she said. This year the money from Housing and Urban Development finally became available through a grant proposal made by Bert Nash.
"It has taken what I call 'cage rattling,'" Cage said.
She said she and others had written letters, attended legislative meetings, given speeches and presented reports advocating the need to supplement the Bert Nash house.
HIGHLAND — Crews and cadaver-sniffing dogs began searching a northeast Kansas cornfield yesterday for the body of a woman a former Missouri police officer said he killed 12 years ago.
Irvin, 42, and all three women were from St. Joseph, Mo. where Irvin served briefly as a missionary.
Marvin Lee Irvin, the former police officer, confessed last week to killing Micki Jo West in 1979 and to killing two other women in 1990. He said that West's remains would be found in the same field in Doniphan County where the bodies of the two other women were unrestored last November.
Search for woman's remains continues
Authorities from St. Joseph, the Kansas Highway Patrol and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation joined the Doniphan County Sheriff's Department in the search for the
remains of West.
Doniphan County Sheriff Mark Long said that the search was concentrated in an area the size of a football field. The area is near Irvin's boyhood home just outside Highland in northeast Kansas.
Arthur Kelly, S. Joseph罪 Officer, said yesterday that crews were going over the cornfield with a 32-foot disk. Two specially trained dogs brought in from Omaha, Neb., then were sniffing through the turned earth for any sign of remains.
The next step, if necessary, would be to remove the top few inches of soil to reach a layer of undisturbed soil not farmed since 1979, when West disappeared.
If any signs of human remains are found, authorities will conduct an archaeological dig led by a forensic anthropologist from Kansas State University.
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The University of Kansas School of Fine Arts
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Amalia Hernandez, Director and Choreographer
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8:00 p.m. Tuesday, October 15, 1991 Georgia Neese Gray Performance Hall Topeka Performing Arts Center
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Tickets on sale in the Murphy Hall Box Office and the Topeka Performing Arts Center Box Office. Student tickets available at the SUA Station, Kansas University, all reserved; fee $10 & $16, KU and 1/2 students $5.00 & $18, senior citizens and other students $18 & $15, to charge by phone, call 913/844-3982 or to琴, call 231-7317.
Partially funded by the MidMuseum Arts Alliance "Donate on Tour" program, and the Kansas Arts Commission and National Endowment for Education, the national support provided by the KU Student Tenure Program and the KU Endowment Association
Reservations for bus service to the Topeka Performing Arts Center can be made through the Murphy Hall Box Office, for information on bus service and car pools, call 913/844-3982
Tickets for KU students are available through the box office, the reservation deadline for the 87 free student tickets is 5:00 p.m. Friday, October 11.
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