Kansas City takes the lead in closing the digital divide

The digital divide separating low-income families from in-home Internet service got a little narrower Wednesday in Kansas City as 100 apartments in the West Bluff housing complex began to connect to the high-speed Google Fiber network.

It’s part of the Obama administration’s ConnectHome initiative launched in July to give public housing residents free Internet access in 27 cities and the Choctaw Nation in Oklahoma.

Years of collaborative efforts in Kansas City to close the digital divide gave the city a leg up to join this demonstration project from the outset. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is partnering with Internet service providers, nonprofits and private organizations to give families broadband access, training and computers.

“It’s fair to say this is a grand slam,” HUD Secretary Julián Castro told The Star’s editorial board. The private sector is picking up the majority of the cost.

Dennis Kish, Google Fiber vice president, said the free connection will be indefinite for these public housing residents, adding that it was a worthwhile investment in people and in this community.

West Bluff has about 260 residents, more than half of them children. It is the first of five Housing Authority of Kansas City communities with a total of 1,800 residents to be connected over the next few months.

In addition to HUD and Google Fiber, the Connecting for Good organization will provide on-site Internet training for West Bluff residents. Through Surplus Exchange, an equipment recycler, families can buy a refurbished personal computer for $55.

Internet access no longer is a luxury. Having the ability to access the Internet in today’s society is as essential as the telephone has been for years, said Edwin Lowndes, executive director of the Housing Authority.

It’s how students complete schoolwork and apply for college. It’s how adults apply for jobs, health care and just about everything else.

Internet access is a way out of poverty, yet fewer than half of the poorest families in the U.S. have an Internet connection at home, and 70 percent of the students in Kansas City Public Schools lack that service.

A Digital Inclusion Summit in 2014 brought many groups together in Kansas City to attack the problem. Another will do the same in May, where successes can be counted and new challenges confronted.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Kansas City takes the lead in closing the digital divide."