photo by: Rochelle Valverde

A handful of tents are seen in Watson Park on April 1, 2021.

With winter weather on the horizon, city officials are working to identify four additional locations to provide emergency overnight shelter during freezing temperatures for the approximately 200 people who are living outdoors.

As it stands, the city has identified only one location — a city recreation center — for an overnight cold-weather shelter, which will have the capacity to serve only 40 people, according to a city staff memo. The Lawrence City Commission will receive an update on the planning efforts for the Winter Weather Shelter Program during its meeting Tuesday.

Using local funding and federal pandemic relief money, the city operated temporary shelters in local hotels last year, but will not return to that model again this winter. The city is instead planning a return to congregate sheltering in local churches, using a largely volunteer workforce. However, thus far the city has not succeeded in finding any local churches willing to host the program.

“To-date, the (city’s) Homeless Liaison has made multiple attempts to communicate with the churches that provided their facilities and volunteer support in past years,” Lawrence Community Development Manager Danelle Walters states in the memo. “These particular churches have either indicated that their facilities are not available for sheltering this winter or they have not responded to the City’s requests.”

Under the city’s occupancy rules for emergency winter shelters, properties that are 1,500 square feet and larger can serve up to 20 guests, and those that are 3,000 square feet and larger can serve up to 40 guests. The only location that has been identified for the program is the Community Building, the city’s recreation center that is located downtown. The city needs another four buildings to meet the peak need of 200 people.

The responsibility for providing emergency winter shelter has fallen to the city, churches and volunteers for the past few years due to capacity reductions at the Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St. LCS has the capacity to serve 125 people most of the time and 140 people during the winter, but has not used its expanded winter capacity in the past few years. The LCS initially reduced its capacity to 65 people in August 2019 due to budget issues and, following the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, has largely limited capacity at its building to a maximum of 40 people. The shelter temporarily housed some people in hotels with the help of federal coronavirus relief funds, but that program ended April 1.

In July, before the recent increase in cases due to the Delta variant, shelter board members told the Journal-World that though the shelter would not return to the 125-bed capacity under its new housing-first method, which focuses on quickly housing people, that they did project the shelter would increase its capacity to 82 guests by September. However, following the rise in cases due to Delta, shelter leaders announced in August that capacity would remain at 40 people so the shelter had room to quarantine and isolate people at its building. In September, the Douglas County Commission approved a health order that calls for the county to fund off-site isolation locations for people staying at the LCS and other congregate shelters who have tested positive for the virus.

Melissa Botts, interim director at the LCS, said in an email to the Journal-World that the health order has not helped to increase the capacity of the shelter. Specifically, Botts said that because the order does not cover those required to quarantine as they await test results or compel hotels to rent a room to those who have tested positive and need to isolate, it has not allowed the LCS to increase capacity.

“Given the reluctance of local hotels to serve as an isolation space for community members who have tested positive, it’s of a very limited use for keeping LCS from becoming a Delta hotspot,” Botts wrote. “In light of this we must continue to keep our capacity at a number that we can safely isolate and quarantine in place at the shelter should we experience a breakout of a vaccine resistant variant.”

When asked whether the LCS would remain at the 40-person capacity through the winter months, Botts said capacity could potentially increase, but particulars are not yet final. Botts said the shelter was looking at options to grow capacity in the next month; however, she said the shelter was not in a position to discuss what that may look like until details have been worked through and the shelter thinks it can roll out all changes safely for its guests, staff, volunteers and the community at large.

For its part, the city is continuing to seek additional options. Walters states in the memo that The Salvation Army has expressed interest in providing its building for overnight winter sheltering, but that maintenance needs may prevent its use. She states that city staff will continue working with The Salvation Army to determine whether the facility can be used, and the city is still hoping to get interest from churches or other religious organizations.

“We urge the faith community to engage and volunteer their facilities to meet this critical need,” Walters said.

The city encourages anyone interested in participating in the program to contact the City’s Homeless Liaison, Mitch Young, at 832-7958 or by email at miyoung@lawrenceks.org.

The Lawrence City Commission will meet virtually at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday, and some staff will be in place at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The public may attend the meeting in person at City Hall or participate virtually by following directions included in the commission’s meeting agenda, which is available on the city’s website, lawrenceks.org.