Get to know…Cole Schnieders, Continuum of Care Planning Manager

Cole Schnieders joined #TeamUnited in 2021 as our Continuum of Care Planning Manager. During that time, he as been strengthening the Coalition to End Homelessness in Wichita/Sedgwick County. United Way of the Plains is the lead agency for the coalition, formerly known as Impact ICT – Continuum of Care. The coalition is a partnership of dozens of organizations working to make homelessness rare, brief and non-reoccurring for all our neighbors in Wichita and Sedgwick County.

Describe your role with the Coalition.

I’m responsible for coordinating our community’s efforts to win and execute a $3.1 million grant from HUD to end homelessness for our neighbors. Part of that work includes grant writing and compliance, assisting the Coalition to End Homelessness board, and working with new and current partners to prevent and end homelessness for everyone in Sedgwick County.

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you made it to United Way of the Plains.

My role before this was as the volunteer coordinator for Catholic Charities Wichita. In that role, I met fantastic people volunteering for the organization in all their different ministries, from the Our Daily Bread Food Pantry to their Harbor House shelter for survivors of domestic violence. Of all the work I was able to do with Catholic Charities, I loved most working with the families at St. Anthony Family Shelter, from their first day to seeing their successes years after their stay. When I had the opportunity to come over to United Way of the Plains, I was ecstatic because I wasn’t just helping the family in front of me; I could help everyone in the community experiencing homelessness through system improvement and ensuring we have the resources to help.

Describe the state of homelessness in our community.

In 2023, 650,000 people were estimated to be experiencing homelessness on a single night in January across the United States, a 12% increase over 2022. In Sedgwick County, we’ve been relatively flat, finding 690 neighbors in 2022 and 691 in 2024 during our Point-in-Time Count. That tells me that our community of nonprofits, local government, and volunteers takes seriously the individual and community-wide crisis that homelessness is. While housing and the basic needs of life became more expensive and the world more turbulent, we met the local need. We’re taking that energy to new heights every day, housing more people than the day before, because we are a community that believes that homelessness should be rare, brief, and nonrecurring. Read more about the Coalition’s annual Point in Time Count results for 2024 here.

What do you find most rewarding about helping others regain their housing stability? Are there struggles that also go along with this?

The most rewarding aspect is seeing people succeed. Sometimes, that’s a previous participant coming back to volunteer or work with us. Sometimes, it means never seeing someone again because they’re stably housed and won’t ever fall back into the homeless service system. Most often though, it’s seeing the dedicated work of case managers overcoming numerous challenges with a client who’s been homeless for far too long and getting them housed.

My biggest struggle is not having the resources our unhoused neighbors need, or the resources staff in the Coalition need to end someone’s homelessness. If given the chance and the support they need, people would choose housing over being homeless. It’s my constant struggle to try to alleviate that resource gap.

What are some of the biggest challenges our community faces when working to solve homelessness? How does that motivate you to help someone end their episode of homelessness?

The main reasons for homelessness are the lack of affordable, accessible housing and the income needed to sustain that housing. When families start paying a whole month’s paycheck on rent, any sudden change, from loss of employment to a sudden illness can cause people end up homeless. That’s what drives me every day – homelessness is not any one person’s fault, but it’s my responsibility to make sure there is an efficient, caring system that will get them back to where they want and need to be.

What is one of your favorite coalition outreach events and why?

Some of my favorite events are the quieter events, when I get to talk one on one with our neighbors experiencing homelessness. Everyone has a unique story, and everyone has something different that helps them get up in the morning and continuing to hope that things will get better. Our unhoused neighbors are resilient, resourceful, and genuinely wonderful people. They, like many of us at parts of our lives, are just in a tough spot.