Details about a proposed affordable housing trust fund for Lawrence may become clearer on Tuesday evening.

City commissioners at their weekly meeting are scheduled to hear from the Justice Matters community group about affordable housing issues. On Friday commissioners said they were still working to understand the size and scope of a housing trust fund that the faith-based group hopes to see established.

But Mayor Jeremy Farmer said he’s had previous conversations with the organization during which its members suggested $3 million a year would be needed to fund an affordable housing effort.

“That is a big number and an intimidating number,” Farmer said. “I think we just need to keep having a serious conversation about it. Everything that happens in our community happens that way. People have an idea and we keep getting together and talking about it until we figure out a way.”

Ben MacConnell, lead organizer for Justice Matters, said the group no longer is certain that $3 million is the right number. Instead, it is focusing on how the community could come together to eliminate an approximately 75-person waiting list for transitional housing in the community by 2019.

“The money is a big issue to figure out,” MacConnell said. “But the crisis is what we’re really trying to lift up. When you start really looking around the community, you see that there are a lot of people in substandard housing.”

Doing more for affordable housing has some support on the City Commission.

“I think a trust fund would be great,” Commissioner Leslie Soden said. “I think identifying funding sources for it is going to take a lot of work. But the timing is good. We’re in budget season. We might have to take a multi-year approach to funding, though.”

Farmer said using part of the city’s transient guest tax, the 6 percent tax charged on hotel rooms, to fund affordable housing projects has been mentioned. That likely would require the city to revamp the ordinance that governs the guest tax because it currently limits the use of the funds to tourism related activities. Looking at ways to use other existing sales taxes for affordable housing also has been mentioned by the group, Farmer said. Farmer said he’s not sure what would be an appropriate funding source.

“I think there is a big learning curve that we have in front of us,” Farmer said.

Both Farmer and Soden, though, said they were excited about the opportunity to discuss affordable housing. Both have been frequent proponents of providing more affordable housing for low-income residents.

Soden said figuring out how to provide more transitional housing units is important. Those would be temporary living units for families who have suddenly lost a home, people who have just gotten out of jail and are trying to get settled in society, or perhaps a foster child who has aged out of the system or women who are trying to escape domestic violence.

Soden said she thinks there also will be discussions about supportive housing for people who have mental health care needs. That discussion, however, may end up being part of Douglas County’s talks on expanding the jail and creating a crisis stabilization center to support people who need mental health care, she said.

The city spends a significant amount of money on housing for low-income residents. A review of the 2015 budget shows at least $950,000 in city funding for the homeless shelter, Tenants to Homeowners, a housing rehabilitation and weatherization program, Housing & Credit Counseling and other similar organizations.

The city had a housing trust fund in the early 2000s, but it struggled to get off the ground. In 2001 the city gave the fund $500,000 that had been left over from building the indoor aquatics center as seed money. By 2005, the fund was largely unspent, and members of the trust fund’s board struggled with how the money should be spent and how the fund would be replenished in future years. Eventually, the fund became inactive.

Whether the city can find funds in the 2016 budget to start a new program is uncertain.

“We may not be able to get to $3 million this year,” Farmer said. “We may not even be able to get to a million this year. But momentum is important, and we have to keep the momentum going on this.”

Justice Matters, a consortium of 21 local religious organizations, had about 1,600 people from local congregations at a forum at the Lied Center earlier this month during which affordable housing, mental health and other social issues were discussed with community leaders.

Soden said she thinks it would be beneficial for the City Commission to appoint a board that would advise the commission on a future housing trust fund. That board’s first task should be to make recommendations on funding options, she said.

Commissioners meet at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall.