The Lawrence Community Shelter is broadening its search to find money to build a new homeless shelter to replace its controversial operations in downtown Lawrence.

Shelter leaders will ask city commissioners at their Tuesday evening meeting to write a letter of support for a $600,000 earmark request that the shelter is submitting to U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback’s office.

And soon, commissioners may be asked to begin supporting possible locations for a new shelter as well. The Journal-World has confirmed that the shelter has been exploring the purchase of an 18,000-square-foot building – currently home to Penny’s Construction and several other businesses – at 13th and Oregon streets.

Shelter director Loring Henderson stressed that the shelter’s board hadn’t settled on the east Lawrence location, but also still was looking at other locations that he declined to identify.

“But we’re serious about moving,” Henderson said of hopes to leave the location at 10th and Kentucky streets that has produced complaints from neighbors. “We want out of here as much as anyone wants us out of here. It is not an adequate building for us to do what we need to do.”

In the application for federal funding, Henderson said a new shelter likely would cost about $3 million. He reiterated past comments that the shelter does not intend to seek any funding for a new shelter from the city.

Instead, the shelter board has hired a professional fundraising company – Greenwood Consulting – to begin planning for a community fundraising drive.

“We’re still doing the groundwork on that,” Henderson said. “There’s no start date for it, but we know we’ll have to have public donations to make this work. Just how many we’ll have to have is the big question.”

Part of that will depend on whether Congress approves the $600,000 earmark. Henderson said he would like for it to be approved during the next budget year, but said he wasn’t sure what to expect.

“This is my debut with this sort of thing,” Henderson said. “I have no way to gauge whether I should be hopeful or not.”

City Commissioner Rob Chestnut said he’s pleased the shelter is thinking seriously about ways to capture outside money to fund a new shelter. He also said he’s encouraged that the shelter is scouting out possible locations for a new shelter. He stopped well short of saying he supported the 13th and Oregon site, but said he could understand why shelter leaders were looking at it.

“It is in a bit of a residential neighborhood still, but there are other considerations,” Chestnut said. “One of the considerations is that it is somewhat adjacent to a number of social service groups out there.”

The site is about six blocks from a conglomeration of social service agencies – Health Care Access, the state SRS office, Independence Inc. – that are south of 19th Street and Haskell Avenue.

“But any location is going to have challenges,” Chestnut said. “But they know that they need the community to get behind this project, and that starts with making sure they work with and talk with neighbors.”