photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

James Chiselom, the new executive director at the Lawrence Community Shelter, is pictured Monday, Jan. 8, 2024.

The new leader of the Lawrence Community Shelter operates by a simple motto: Help at least one person each day.

James Chiselom began his role as the shelter’s latest executive director Friday, joining LCS as a slew of operational changes are in the works. As the Journal-World has reported, that includes managing The Village at 256 N. Michigan St. — Lawrence’s community of 64-square-foot cabins for people experiencing homelessness — and expanding the shelter’s night-by-night capacity.

That helping mindset will come in handy for meeting those goals, and Chiselom said he thinks now was the right time for him to put his name forward as a candidate for the job.

“I believe at this point with the support from the city, the county and all the other players, this was the right time to do this,” Chiselom told the Journal-World. “The resources are there. This is the best ingredients (to solve homelessness) I’ve seen since doing this type of work in Kansas.”

Chiselom spoke with the Journal-World on Monday, his second day on the job, and shared more about his philosophy and his hopes for LCS moving forward.

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As the Journal-World has reported, Chiselom joins LCS after last serving as the deputy director for community needs and services at the Topeka Rescue Mission.

But before that, he’d actually retired once before. That was back in 2021, when Chiselom was serving as the Emergency Solutions Grant program manager at the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation.

But no sooner had Chiselom retired than he was involved with volunteering at the Topeka Rescue Mission. That started when he reached out to an old colleague from the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services — Misty Bosch-Hastings, who joined the City of Lawrence as Homeless Programs Coordinator last summer. Bosch-Hastings was working at the Topeka Rescue Mission at the time, and Chiselom was eventually persuaded back into full-time employment.

“I did that, and it was wonderful,” Chiselom said. “I didn’t want to do anything else, I’m happy. I’m a simple person — just helping people the best I can.”

The move to LCS, meanwhile, was perhaps an even more rapid change. The nationwide search for a new executive director was initiated just a couple months ago, and Chiselom had been hired by late December.

As Chiselom said, the draw was there when it came to his interest in the role. Now, he said he sees LCS as a key part of the team working to help get individuals into more permanent housing. And he said each of those team members — from the shelter to staff with the City of Lawrence — are in a position where they can “start to speak the same language.”

“I can already identify that this is a pivotal moment in the way homelessness response is going to be addressed in the City of Lawrence,” Chiselom said. “I can definitely see where the community deserves to know what we’re doing — I think that’s important.”

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Chiselom’s philosophy is all about developing relationships. He said he’d already been building them with people, like shelter guests and his staff, midway through his second day in charge.

In many cases, he said making that connection starts with asking “How can I help you?” From there, it often becomes a conversation about not just an individual’s immediate needs but also their aspirations toward stable housing and employment. Chiselom said building a better relationship — and thinking about how he’d feel if put in the same situation — usually prompts better discussion.

“It’s a big fear to do some of those things sometimes, to go from not having a house to going to a house and having to work consistently,” Chiselom said. “What if you don’t do that? It’s a lot to lose, so some of the trauma flows together. You hear people say they’re afraid of success? Nobody’s afraid of success — they’re afraid of losing that success.”

Chiselom said one of his early goals is to be a supportive leader. He said there are a lot of young people working on the LCS staff, and he sees it as important to show them why the field is worth sticking around in.

That’ll be especially important as LCS works to hire more employees. Along with additional workers for the main shelter, staffers will also be needed for The Village. Chiselom said hiring for important positions like a program director and operations director are currently in the works.

Though there still isn’t a timeline for opening The Village, Chiselom does have a vision for the community. That’s as a temporary solution, not a permanent fix. In fact, Chiselom said the small size of the Pallet cabins at The Village really illustrates how temporary they are supposed to be.

He said it also underscores the need to get other pieces of the puzzle in place, then develop a flow between LCS, The Village and other temporary housing options based on what services each individual needs to be housed.

“There’s going to be housing for people no matter what their situation is going to be,” Chiselom said. “There has to be, because the Pallet Village is not a permanent place for people to live. It’s temporary.”

Chiselom said he’s also looking forward to seeing what volunteer opportunities a resource like The Village might present — from coffee deliveries to organizing trips to one of the city’s recreational centers or a local church service.

With that comes an opportunity to understand more about what causes individuals to become homeless. Chiselom alluded to the City of Lawrence and Douglas County’s joint plan to address homelessness, “A Place for Everyone,” as the end goal.

“That’s what I want people to start thinking about … not so much what they’re doing, but how do you think they got here?” Chiselom said. “…Just think about that, a place for everyone. That would be so wonderful. But I know, from what I’ve seen, we have to stop stigmatizing how people get to that place.”

Chiselom said he’s willing to evaluate and adapt to get to the right mix, and he’s optimistic that the system LCS is spearheading will be an effective one.

“It’s going to be wonderful — you can mark my words, you can quote me on that,” Chiselom said. “This is going to be wonderful for the city, for the folks that need things, and it’s up to me to get the right people at the table to do that. …We’re going to have a response for homelessness in the city of Lawrence.”