It’s rarely been more difficult to find an affordable home in Lawrence, Rebecca Buford says.

During her three-year tenure as associate director of Tenants to Homeowners, the organization has typically had a list of five or 10 people waiting to buy a relatively inexpensive home.

The length of that list has more than doubled in recent months, Buford said.

“Right now I have 20 people with pre-approval for $80,000 to $100,000 (home purchase prices) — which you think of as a good sum of money — and they cannot find anything,” she said recently. “There is no housing out there for that price in decent enough condition that anybody wants to touch it.”

Indeed, the Douglas County Appraiser’s Office reported last week the average sale price of a single-family home this year is $162,600 — nearly double what Buford’s clients can afford, and more than the $150,000 federal guidelines suggest is affordable for a Lawrence family of four. It’s up nearly 30 percent from 1999.

Even as prices rise, though, City Hall’s most public attempt to address the issue appears to be faltering.

Frustration

Members of the city’s Housing Trust Fund Advisory Board said they soon would tell the Lawrence City Commission the board should be disbanded if a permanent source of funding can’t be found to support affordable housing efforts.

“I think there is very clearly some level of frustration of, ‘Why are we here if we can’t find some funding?'” said Kirk McClure, a board member.

Employees of Nekan Weatherproofing, of Topeka, work on a home at 1108 Conn. in conjunction with Tenants to Homeowners Inc., which helps provide affordable housing to renters. Tenants to Homeowners has seen a surge in applicants as the pool of affordable housing in Lawrence shrinks.

City Hall launched the trust fund with much fanfare in 2001, using $500,000 left over from construction of the Lawrence Indoor Aquatic Center. Its mission: buy, build or renovate housing for people who would otherwise be unable to do so.

“When we got started there was a lot of momentum, determination to get something done,” said Ed Tato, who has been chairman of the advisory board since its inception.

Some money was spent: $66,000 in 2002 on six small projects aimed mostly at repairing existing housing.

But members quickly agreed more money would be needed for the fund to be successful in the long term. They spent most of the next three years mulling methods to find a steady source of income for the fund.

A buyer’s perspective

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In November, the board presented four public financing options to the City Commission, including development impact fees and real estate transfer charges. The ideas died on the vine, and trust fund members were discouraged.

Board members “finally got to the point where they couldn’t see any reason to keep going like they were,” said Margene Swarts, City Hall’s community development manager and liaison to the board. “Without a steady funding source, the housing trust fund wouldn’t be effective.”

From Patricia Jones’ perspective, though, there is little that is effective in creating affordable housing in Lawrence.

Affordable housing “is nonexistent here,” Jones said last week.

“I don’t know how you could create affordable housing in this market — people are going to pay the rent,” she said. “They have to live somewhere.”

A common story

Jones, 44, is a single mother of two teenage daughters who works as a facilities painter at Kansas University. She’s been approved for assistance from the federal Homeowner Outreach Program to buy a house for no more than $95,000.

“You can find homes in that price range. I’d say one out of 10 is in that price range,” said Jones, who lives in an apartment. But those houses often aren’t in good enough shape for her to earn the federal program’s approval for purchase.

Jones hopes to eventually buy a three-bedroom house but would settle for two bedrooms.

“It doesn’t have to be nice. It doesn’t have to be new,” Jones said. “I just want my own place.”

Such stories, Buford said, are common.

“In the last six months, it has gotten even tougher” to buy a house, she said. “You almost have to have a two-income household, which is really hard for single parents, single-income individuals.”

‘Small piece’

City Commissioner Boog Highberger campaigned for office in 2003 on finding solutions for affordable housing.

“I think it’s absolutely crucial that there be some housing stock at an affordable level for working families, to keep Lawrence in the character we love so much,” he said last week.

Highberger said commissioners should work to provide a clear direction and steady funding to the advisory board, rather than let it go by the wayside.

The question “Do you think Lawrence has affordable housing?” drew dozens of responses Monday on ljworld.com. Here’s a sampling of them:¢ single mom: “‘Affordable housing’ is an oxymoron in Lawrence.”¢ Haymaker: “I would say the housing is overpriced in Lawrence, but certainly not as ridiculous and many other parts of the country. You can rent decent places for what I would consider average rent, but if you want to buy a house, the market is currently overinflated in Lawrence.”¢ grilled_cheese: “There is no way that my husband and I will ever be able to afford a mortgage here in Lawrence. In fact, we were just looking at houses/townhouses/condos yesterday, and the only things in our price range smelled and had rooms so small that the only thing they could fit would be a twin-sized bed. Sigh. Sob“¢ North Lawrence guy: “Heck no! I am a Realtor, and every time there is a house for under 120k, there are people literally fighting over it. Funny thing is, 20 miles north in McLouth you can buy the nicest house in town for 120! Give me a break.”Read the rest and add your own: On the Street: Do you think Lawrence has affordable housing?

But, he added: “Housing trust funds are just a small piece of the equation … I think there are other things we can do.”

Possible solutions, he said, include reducing the required minimum size of housing lots — proposed in the next revamp of city zoning codes — and allowing developers to build narrower, less expensive streets in new subdivisions.

Highberger said he would soon ask Mayor Mike Rundle to appoint a task force to tackle the issue.

Commissioner David Dunfield, who helped create the trust fund, suggested public financing shouldn’t be the only source of money. Board members were appointed, he said, with private fund-raising prowess in mind.

“When we set up the board, we were hopeful the board would be part of the solution in terms of finding ongoing funding for their work,” Dunfield said, adding: “I guess ideally, I would like to see it be a (public-private) partnership.”

‘Certain pessimism’

Tato said it would be difficult for the board to start fresh.

“The way things have gone, I don’t know that the people who have been slogging through this two-and-a-half, three years can start this over again,” he said. “I guess there’s a certain pessimism there now that wasn’t there when we started.”

The money still in the fund, he said, would be used for one or two big projects if the City Commission decides to disband the board.

Hilda Enoch, a Lawrence activist who was a vocal proponent for establishing the fund, said the city shouldn’t give up.

“I think the city has to come through; low-income housing is one of our desperate needs,” she said. “We need to do better.”

Jones, meanwhile has taken a break from her housing search, signing a yearlong apartment lease at the beginning of this month.

“I thought surely we’ll find something we can live in by the first of August, but it didn’t work out that way,” she said of her housing search. “It’s kind of a Catch-22, because now I’m going to have to wait at least a year to buy a house. In a year’s time, I could be priced out again.”

The City Commission is expected to hear from the trust fund board at its Aug. 24 meeting.