photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024.

Lawrence city commissioners will receive a presentation Tuesday about the Douglas County Tenant Experiences Report, which could help inform future policy decisions about affordable housing.

The survey, which was led by KU’s Life Span Institute and the LiveWell Sexual Violence Prevention Work Group, was conducted from July to October of 2023 in part to find out more about renters in Douglas County at a time when more and more Lawrence residents are renting.

The survey asked 1,051 renters in Douglas County about the quality of their housing, how much they pay for rent and how difficult it is to find rental housing in the first place. Two-thirds of them said their rent had gone up in the 24 months before they were surveyed, and 48% of those whose rent went up said the increase was $100 or more per month, as the Journal-World reported.

The survey also found that nearly half of the renters surveyed were cost-burdened by rent, meaning they were spending over 30% of their income on rent. Along with those high costs, many renters also reported difficulties in finding housing in the first place. It took an average of three months and five applications for survey respondents to secure a rental.

Although the findings from the survey sound stark, it is not the universal experience for renters. The report notes that “there was an over-samping of residents of lower income” because there was “a special emphasis” on reaching out to people who may experience barriers to housing to learn about those specific experiences.

The survey came after the City Commission approved changes to the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance in February 2023, which prohibited landlords from refusing potential tenants on the basis of those tenants’ using Section 8 vouchers or other forms of rental assistance to pay their rent, as the Journal-World reported. After that passed, the Sexual Violence Prevention Work Group found a need for more data while researching local housing market conditions.

In addition to breaking down the survey results, the report also made some recommendations for helping renters in Lawrence, including adding a rent control or stabilization ordinance, creating a Tenant Bill of Rights and implementing more inclusive screening practices.

In other business, commissioners will:

•Consider approving a preliminary development plan and a rezoning request for a housing development that would add 50 single-family homes in west Lawrence.

The proposed development, known as Monterey Gardens at Fall Creek, would add those 50 houses and private streets at 3633 Peterson Road. Those houses would be located right next to Fall Creek Farms, and the developer said it would include smaller lots than that development, according to a city memo.

A plan for the development was first filed in 2022, as the Journal-World reported, but this new plan changed the boundaries of the proposed development to ensure that it can fit the 50 lots it has planned.

The Planning Commission voted in favor of both the rezoning request and preliminary development plan.

• Consider awarding a $4,126,000 bid to MegaKC Corp. to replace a water basin at the Kaw Water Treatment Plant.

The project would replace the current carbon contact basin at the Kaw Water Treatment Plant, which was first constructed in 1917 according to a city memo.

Along with demolishing and replacing the existing basin, the project also includes adding new plug flow basins, associated yard piping and concrete surface repairs to the adjacent carbon building.