photo by: City of Lawrence screenshot

A group of Lawrence Community Shelter workers demanded additional city funding to accommodate wage and benefit increases for LCS staff during the Lawrence City Commission meeting on Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

A large group of Lawrence Community Shelter workers came to Tuesday’s Lawrence City Commission meeting to demand additional city funding to support wage increases.

As the Journal-World has reported, the shelter’s workers unionized in October 2023 and a couple of months later publicly announced their bargaining demands, including that they be paid $30 an hour — about an 85% pay raise over the current rates.

But on Tuesday, a smaller portion of the larger group of shelter workers — like Dean Robinson, who said he works as a direct service advocate at LCS — said that the group has yet to receive an offer during bargaining that includes any increases in wages or benefits.

“We have adopted the changes requested by the city, such as increasing our bed capacity, but we have yet to see you hold up your end of the bargain,” Robinson said. “… Tonight, we’re asking that you follow through on your promises made and to give us the funding needed to pay us a livable wage. If the city is serious about solving homelessness, it’s time to serve the workers solving homelessness for you.”

Another shelter worker, Jacob Schmill, said that at the most recent bargaining session, workers were told that the decision against offering wage and benefit increases came after several weeks of back and forth discussions with city staff who said “in no uncertain terms” that there would not be any increase to the shelter’s funding to account for increased wages or benefits as part of the contract negotiations.

That was a point of frustration, the shelter workers said, because city commissioners had previously expressed that the shelter’s funding agreement could be revisited in the event that the union’s contract resulted in higher staff wages. The City Commission in December approved a $2.7 million funding agreement with LCS for 2024, a substantial increase over the $296,000 the city has typically provided LCS each year.

While those negotiations have been underway, the shelter has been in the midst of significant changes. It brought on a new executive director, James Chiselom, at the beginning of the year, not long after agreeing to operate The Village — the community of 64-square-foot cabins for people experiencing homelessness located at 256 N. Michigan St. — as part of the new funding agreement with the city. The agreement also commits LCS to providing a minimum capacity of 125 beds nightly at the shelter, plus a surge capacity of up to 140 spots for winter sheltering.

Some shelter workers also pointed out that their pay rates — $16.25 per hour for day and evening staff and $17.25 per hour for overnight staff, as the Journal-World has previously reported — are significantly lower than the rates for monitors at the city-sanctioned Camp New Beginnings, the support site for people experiencing homelessness located just behind Johnny’s Tavern in North Lawrence. A city spokesperson confirmed to the Journal-World that those city workers earn $25 per hour.

LCS workers also said they are paid less than what Schmill referred to as the national standard of pay for front-line shelter workers, $22 per hour. They also cited the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator, which says the living wage for a single adult with no children in Lawrence is about $20 an hour.

City leaders didn’t take action on the issue during Tuesday’s meeting, since the topic was addressed during the meeting’s general public comment period and wasn’t on the agenda as an item for the commission to consider.