Quindaro ...
Quindaro
is a street in Kansas City, Kansas, a street in a neighborhood which is as down in the heels as any neighborhood in the country.
The Quindaro area has a higher proportion of deserted houses and lots with homes razed and owned by the County
than any other neighborhood in the Kansas City area. Many of the remaining occupied homes are cited by the county and awaiting
demolition. Some of the residents live in their cars because the houses have been condemned. Not unexpectedly, other statistics
are dismal. High crime, low educational levels, lack of resources, and serious untended medical problems plague the families
in the area. This area
is home to the largest public housing project in Kansas, Juniper Gardens.
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The demographics of
the area zip codes are harsher than even the rest of Wyandotte County. The issues of poverty and associated poor health are
amplified in the area which is listed as an extreme poverty tract with more than 40% of the population living below the poverty
level and over 15% of the residents with incomes less than half of the federal poverty level (more than 3 times the state
proportions.) In the Northeast about 53% of the adults have not graduated from high school compared to 22% countywide.
The median income of most of the census blocks in the area is less than $20,000 compared to more than twice that West of the
highway. The Northeast area which is about 25 blocks North to South and 40 blocks East to West had no medical
provider after the last clinic moved West of Interstate 635 in 2009.
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Family Health Care (FHC) began providing health services from the basement of Faith Lutheran
Church at 530 Quindaro in the NE area of Kansas City, Kansas within a few weeks of the announcement of the Federally Qualified
Health Center’s move out of the neighborhood. From the start of The Quindaro Family Health Care clinic (the Q) we recognized
it was going to be a challenge. The nearest drug store is many blocks away, buses do not run into the neighborhood, a regular
grocery store is almost an hour away by bus and the area was bereft of health services when even the federally supported health
center moved more than 60 blocks west from the low-income housing site.
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Family Health Care stepped forward to create answers to these needs. Collaborating with Faith
Lutheran Church and local neighborhood associations, the Q opened in the basement of the church. FHC added
handicapped access to the basement, refurbished and began seeing patients in June, 2009.
