Gov. Kathleen Sebelius will create an interagency council on homelessness next month to coordinate Kansas government efforts on the issue.

The announcement was made by Stephen Weatherford, president of the Kansas Development Finance Authority, at the start of today’s Statewide Homeless Summit at Kansas University. Weatherford said state departments of education, labor, commerce, corrections and social and rehabilitation services will be among the agencies represented.

“All of these agencies have resources for the homeless,” he told the Journal-World. “This is to better collaborate, coordinate those resources.”

And Whetherford said Sebelius will make a fresh attempt to get legislative approval for a statewide home ownership program — revenues of which would go to help the state’s Housing Trust Fund pay for new affordable housing in the state. Two previous attempts have been blocked in the Kansas House.

“It’s going to be very difficult” to get approval this time, Whetherford said.

Several hundred social workers and activists from across the state attended the summit, held in Kansas Union.

For more on this story, see the 6News reports at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Sunflower Broadband’s Channel 6 and pick up a copy of Friday’s Journal-World.