There isn’t enough to do it all.

Members of the city’s Housing Trust Fund Board asked community groups to present ideas for addressing affordable housing issues in Lawrence. What they received were requests for $1.8 million to build a new homeless shelter, buy land for affordable homes and apartments, and provide rental assistance to low-income tenants.

But there is only $560,000 in the city’s housing trust fund. The fund’s board will meet Monday to determine its recommendations to give to city commissioners over which organizations should receive the limited money.

“They’re absolutely going to have some tough choices,” said Jean Lilly, executive director of Lawrence Habitat for Humanity, which has asked for $400,000 to buy new land to build habitat homes. “There’s a big need in the community.”

The eight proposals received by the Housing Trust Fund Board were:

• $400,000 request from the Lawrence Community Shelter for development of an emergency homeless shelter. Loring Henderson, director of the shelter, said there hasn’t been a site selected or specific plans developed for a shelter. But he said a new shelter is expected to be recommended by the city’s Task Force on Homeless Services when it completes its report later this year. Henderson also said the $400,000 likely wouldn’t be enough to fund completely the construction of a new shelter.

Henderson said he believed a new shelter would need to be at least 15,000 square feet, or not quite double the space the Lawrence Community Shelter has at 944 Ky. That shelter currently has room for 21 people and is full almost every night, Henderson said.

6News video: Community service agencies vie for affordable housing fund (05-12-05)

• $400,000 request from Lawrence Habitat for Humanity to buy and develop property for habitat homes. Lilly said the organization was always needing more property in Lawrence. Habitat homes are sold to moderate-to-low income residents “at-cost” and are financed with no-interest 20-year loans to make the homes more affordable. Lilly said she expected the $400,000 would be able to help about 20 families.
• $300,000 request from the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority to build nine two-bedroom apartment units reserved as affordable housing for the elderly. The units would be built as part of the housing authority’s Peterson Acres project in northwest Lawrence.
• $300,000 request from Lawrence’s Tenants to Homeowners to buy property for the newly-founded Lawrence Community Land Trust. The program is a new affordable housing effort that reduces the cost of homes by having the nonprofit trust own the land a home sits on. There are also restrictions placed on how much property owners can resell the property for, which is an effort to keep the homes affordable for the long term.
• $300,000 request from the Praise Temple Church to create a counseling center that would provide services to people seeking help with credit or buying a home.
• $50,640 request from the Salvation Army and Housing and Credit Counseling Inc. to start a program that would work to place tenants with poor rental histories into Lawrence apartments. The program, in part, would provide rental deposits and damage payments to landlords who agree to accept the tenants.
• $36,224 from the Lawrence Community Shelter and 11 other organizations for a homeless management information software system. The system would allow service providers to compile more accurate data about the city’s homeless population.
• $15,000 request from the Emergency Services Council to provide emergency rental assistance to individuals.

The Housing Trust Fund Board will meet at noon Monday at the Neighborhood Resources Department, 1 Riverfront Plaza. Ultimately city commissioners will decide how to distribute the funds.