To the editor:

I am shocked by what happened at Tuesday’s City Commission study session on affordable housing.

On May 7, more than 1,700 people came to the Lied Center to seek support for a housing trust fund, led by a strong and knowledgeable board, with a consistent funding stream to address the crippling gaps that leave our friends and neighbors with low incomes struggling to sustain what many of us take for granted.

Our community leaders established a housing trust fund in 2001 with $578,000 left over from a parks and recreation project. This allocation created 11 Tenants To Homeowners homes, helped Habitat for Humanity finish 16 homes and helped our Housing Authority add nine rental properties. According to figures presented Tuesday, just under $22,000 of that fund remained and has gained interest and is now worth $102,000. Acting City Manager Diane Stoddard steered the conversation to using $75,000 of the housing fund for a comprehensive housing study of Lawrence. Stoddard then mentioned developers three times, but never mentioned the home insecure, under-housed or homeless citizens in our community.  

A third-party housing study done 10 years ago predicted the additional 4,000 affordable units currently needed and also matches current waiting lists for housing, which take up to two years! Prioritizing a study over direct service of this money is like hiring an architect to design your dream home while your current foundation and roof are collapsing. We need low-income and transitional housing NOW. I hope you will add your voice and efforts to the urgency of this need.