Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St.

The Lawrence Community Shelter has fallen short on its commitment to meet quarterly with the city’s association of neighborhoods, an agreement it made before moving to a new facility in 2012.

The shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., has missed its last four meetings, said Prairie Park Neighborhood Association President Lindsey McCaig — and the absence has had negative consequences. The last community meeting was held in December 2014 with then-executive-director Steven Robinson.

The quarterly meetings are a part of the shelter’s management plan, which was written in May 2010 as a part of the process to obtain a Special Use Permit, or SUP, said Scott McCullough, director of the city’s planning and development services department. In essence, the SUP is the permit that allows the organization to legally house its guests.

The meetings typically offer neighbors a chance to voice any concerns they might have with the shelter or its guests and give the organization an opportunity to keep them updated on any new developments, McCaig said.

In the year since the last meeting McCaig said she has noticed an increase of crime in the Prairie Park Neighborhood, which spans approximately from 23rd Street south to 31st Street and from Haskell Avenue east to the city’s limits.

“On two separate occasions my children found bloody rubber gloves in the park right next to the school,” McCaig said. Both times the gloves were accompanied by drug paraphernalia, she said.

In addition, McCaig said she has been contacted by neighbors with issues ranging from cars being broken into to public intoxication and trespassing. Each time she passes complaints on to the police department.

Lawrence Police Sgt. Trent McKinley said since the shelter’s new facility opened police have paid special attention to the Prairie Park neighborhood by increasing patrol units and investigating concerns as they arise.

Some crimes, ranging from serious to minor offenses, can be linked to the shelter, McKinley said. That uptick was an expected turn with the shelter’s new location, he said.

But other crimes, like the bloody gloves and drugs noted by McCaig, are not necessarily unique to Prairie Park and can be seen all throughout the city, McKinley said. The link between those crimes and the shelter’s guests may be tenuous if it’s there at all, he said.

“We had one (shelter) resident who came up and stabbed somebody in the neck,” McKinley said, referring to a March 2014 incident at the shelter. “Yes there is crime that is associated with the shelter and now that the shelter is located out there it’s going to follow. But whether or not that impacts the amount of crime that occurs near the Prairie Park School… You look at it on a map and why would anybody be cutting through that area?”

McCaig said she has her own opinions on the philosophy of the shelter, but she speaks for the neighborhood when she addresses concerns for the safety of area residents. Last weekend she sent the Lawrence City Commission an email addressing those concerns and the shelter’s missed meetings.

Trey Meyer, the shelter’s executive director, also brought the missed meetings to the city’s attention recently, said McCullough.

Since relocating, the shelter has seen significant financial difficulties and changes in administration. Meyer, who officially took over in November, is the organization’s third executive director in a little more than a year.

Meyer said although the shelter has missed recent neighborhood meetings he has contacted McCaig and hopes to get them started again.

“We are absolutely going to start having these meetings now, we’re looking at January, April, July and October of 2016,” he said. “I’d like to get them back on schedule. It’s something we need to be doing.”

McCullough said the city plans to address the missed meetings with the shelter at the end of this year when the organization delivers its annual operations report.

While the city could begin a hearing process to revoke the shelter’s SUP, McCullough said he sees no need to take such a drastic action since the shelter brought the noncompliance to the city’s attention and plans on following through with its commitments in the future.

As for any neighborhood crime linked to the shelter, Meyer said the organization’s reach doesn’t really extend beyond the walls of the building. Staff does, however, try to help curb any potential criminal activity when and where they can.

“We have very little, if any, ability to control the behavior of people who are not in our facility,” he said. “If we have any idea of who may be engaging in that behavior, then we will engage them in a very direct conversation.”