photo by: Shawn Valverde

The Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., is pictured on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2023.

Lawrence city commissioners will consider approving a $3.5 million funding agreement Tuesday night with the Lawrence Community Shelter to provide emergency and winter sheltering and other supportive services for people experiencing homelessness.

Last year, LCS received around $3.4 million from the city, with an initial $2,677,699 funding agreement in January and an additional $756,550 through an addendum in December, as the Journal-World reported.

Under the new proposed funding agreement, $600,000 will come from the Special Alcohol Fund. The rest of the funds would come first from the Affordable Housing Sales Tax Fund, with the remainder coming from the city’s general fund, according to a city memo. Back in November, Lawrence voters approved raising the affordable housing sales tax from 0.05% to 0.10% to provide more funding for services to help people experiencing homelessness, as the Journal-World reported.

The agreement lays out objectives for LCS, including ensuring that its shelter facilities are fully utilized when there is demand for them. Currently, the shelter has a capacity of 125 beds in its main building, as well as Pallet cabins behind the building that can accommodate 48 people. It also operates The Village, which has 50 Pallet cabins at 256 North Michigan St.

LCS would also be expected to provide services during the day, including helping clients obtain necessary documents, assisting individuals going through substance use treatment programs and providing guests with three meals a day.

The funding agreement would also outline financial “sustainability goals” to gradually reduce the funding LCS receives from the city. It states that LCS should reduce its dependence on city funding by 10% by the end of 2025 and 25% by the end of 2026. LCS will also submit a financial sustainability plan later this year that explains the ways it will be able to find sustainable funding sources.

Unofficial data from the night of the annual point-in-time homeless count released by the city Thursday found there were about 100 fewer homeless people who were without shelter compared to last year’s count. Compared to last year, 48 more people were homeless but in a shelter on that night, as the Journal-World reported.

In other business, commissioners will:

• Consider adding the First Presbyterian Church structure to the Lawrence Register of Historic Places.

First Presbyterian Church, 2415 Clinton Parkway, previously sought to have its whole parcel of land listed on the historic register, but the commission in September voted against it because of concerns over the size of the parcel it would apply to and how other nearby properties would be affected, as the Journal-World reported.

Commissioners at the time expressed interest in designating the structure of the church itself as a landmark, but city code wouldn’t allow them to do that unless the church filed a new request just for its building.

That meeting in September was the second time commissioners considered a request for the church property to be listed as historic. The first time, in June 2024, commissioners voted to send the nomination back to the Historic Resources Commission, with some saying at the time they were concerned the church was attempting to use the city’s rules on historic properties to halt development in the area.

As the Journal-World reported, the church had sued the city in Douglas County District Court in late 2021 after a Dallas-based company proposed developing more than 60 duplexes on property across the street from the church. A judge ruled in favor of the city in June 2024.

The HRC recommended in December that the new request to list just the structure on the register be approved. It said that the church’s “fenestration pattern, brick façade, and three door entry” were significant and should be protected, as well as its “12 Apostles windows,” according to a city memo.

• Establish a temporary demolition permit moratorium for the University Place Neighborhood and certain structures that are associated with founders of the Lawrence chapter of the NAACP.

In November, after the passage of the new Land Development Code, city commissioners asked the city to explore the possibility of a demolition moratorium for certain structures, as the Journal-World reported. Advocates for preservation had hoped for a pause of this kind because of fears the new code would incentivize development in older neighborhoods.

Currently, the city is completing historic surveys on University Place and structures associated with the 14 people who helped found the Lawrence chapter of the NAACP. The proposed moratorium would delay the demolition of any structure built before 1975 in University Place and the 14 structures associated with the NAACP founders, which are scattered around North Lawrence and eastern Lawrence.

The moratorium would be in effect for the structures until the reports from the surveys are submitted to the city. The city anticipates those surveys to be finished by September 2025, according to a city memo.