photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Kim Brabits, right, speaks during the Lawrence Community Shelter Board of Directors meeting on Thursday, March 28, 2024. Brabits was recently hired as deputy director at LCS.

About half of the 50 Pallet shelters at the Lawrence Community Shelter’s village for people experiencing homelessness now have residents, and the shelter’s leader is optimistic about how it’s been going so far.

At Thursday’s LCS Board of Directors meeting, Executive Director James Chiselom told the group that there are currently 24 people living at The Village, the community of 64-square-foot cabins at 256 N. Michigan St.

Residents began moving in at The Village earlier this month, with 35 expected to have started the on-boarding process by Wednesday. But Chiselom said eight residents who were slated to move in either didn’t show up or have not been in communication with LCS staff. Another three residents, after previously agreeing to move in, have since declined an invitation to live at The Village, and one resident was asked to leave following “multiple violations” of the community’s policies.

Yet despite those early bumps, Chiselom was optimistic when speaking about the first few weeks of operations at The Village, now finally open a year after leaders with the City of Lawrence initiated the process of bringing a Pallet shelter village to the community.

“Logistically at The Village, I think things are going better than I expected, not as many issues,” Chiselom said. “… The overall reaction from our guests is positive.”

Chiselom said LCS leaders continue to interview potential residents for The Village, whose population is a mix of residents who were formerly living in camps in North Lawrence and referrals from the city and Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center. He said there are seven potential residents in the interview process right now, and added that new referrals to the main shelter building at 3655 E. 25th St. were also being interviewed to see if they met the criteria for living at The Village.

There have been other positive developments, too, including progress with staffing the community. Chiselom said there were only two full-time staff positions left to be filled in order for The Village to be fully staffed — another security monitor and another case manager. Beyond those two positions, Chiselom said there have been 18 new hires across both LCS locations during March so far, including the key community manager position at The Village and a kitchen manager for the main shelter.

One of those positions is a deputy director role now filled by Kim Brabits, who started last Monday and previously spent 10 years working for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. Chiselom said she’ll be responsible for the shelter’s programming, as well as working with and supervising staff members like case managers and shelter managers.

Brabits was also present at Thursday’s meeting, and she said her goals for the next three months include making the shelter more welcoming to guests through projects like a deep clean and upgrades for restrooms in the area shelter leaders plan to house guests enrolled in a 90-day continuous stay program.

Another project Brabits highlighted from her list involves the Monarch Village behind the shelter building, made up of 12 tiny homes used previously for COVID distancing and to house individuals with complex needs. Brabits said those homes are in need of significant repair and cleaning work.

“I’ve done inspections and I have background in construction and maintenance and, across the board, our Monarch units are not meeting what I would (call) ‘code’ right now,” Brabits said. “If it was somebody I was moving into rapid rehousing or any kind of 90-day program, I would not pass the units that we have.”