photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence's City Hall, located at 6 E. Sixth St., shown during June 2025.

The Lawrence City Commission will consider adopting an action plan required for spending around $1.5 million in federal grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The city is expected to receive an allocation of $1,224,058.61 in Federal grants from the HUD’s Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships Program, with the funds being allocated for initiatives intended to primarily benefit low- and moderate-income residents.

In May 2025, the city learned it would receive $752,390 from the Block Grants and $471,668.61 through the HOME program. The federal funds require a 25% local match, which will lead to a total fiscal impact to the city of just under $1.5 million.

As part of the action plan, the funds from the Block Grants are split between “public services” and “non-public services.” The plan would give $112,858 in grants to the Lawrence Community Shelter for stabilization services for its guests through the public services projects. For non-public services projects, the city would give Lawrence Habitat for Humanity $55,607 for weatherization assistance and $161,762 to GoodLife Innovations, Inc. to rehabilitate a group home facility.

The remaining $521,685 is slated for “various city department projects,” which can include acquisition of property for affordable housing, direct financial assistance for homebuyers, sidewalk gap projects in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and more, according to a city memo.

The $473,307 in funds from the HOME Investment grants would be largely split between the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority for tenant-based rental assistance and Tenants to Homeowners for project funds and operating expenses.

The item is currently included in the City Commission’s consent agenda, which is generally approved with one vote unless a commissioner pulls an item for separate discussion.

In other business, commissioners will receive a presentation from Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health about its County Health Improvement Plan.

The plan was first released in October 2024 after LDCPH had begun developing the plan in 2022. It provides a five-year plan to expand access to healthy food, reduce suicides and opioid deaths, and break down barriers that might be preventing people from getting the health care they need, as the Journal-World reported.

According to a presentation, LDCPH will help provide the support for multiple other organizations across Douglas County to work in six key areas: expanding access to health services, implementing the A Place for Everyone housing plan, improving behavioral health outcomes, improving birth outcomes, expanding food security and working on anti-poverty goals.

The presentation that commissioners will hear during a work session will highlight objectives for each area of work. For example, some of the objectives as part of improving behavioral health outcomes include reducing chronic absenteeism rates in Douglas County Schools and Reducing the drug overdose mortality rate from 15.4 to 10.4 per 100,000 by 2029.

Since the presentation is a work session, the commissioners will take no action on the item.