photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured Thursday, July 7, 2016.

City leaders will soon consider creating a new temporary winter shelter program that will house homeless people in hotel rooms for the next few months.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider authorizing the city to make agreements with the local homeless shelter and a hotel to provide the program. The initial $250,000 in funding for the program will come from federal coronavirus aid, distributed via the Emergency Solutions Grants Program, and will pay for 51 hotel rooms for a period of 90 days, according to a city staff memo to the commission.

If the program is approved, Assistant City Manager Brandon McGuire said the city would lead the program in partnership with the Lawrence Community Shelter and the Econo Lodge University hotel, 2525 W. Sixth St. The Econo Lodge is being recommended as the location of the program out of proposals from six hotels. McGuire said that using hotels emerged as the best solution to provide shelter and prevent the spread of the coronavirus, and it is meant to replace temporary shelters that were run last winter by volunteers in local churches.

“Bringing dozens of people into a single-room, congregate environment overnight for even one night and trying to find volunteers to do that in the middle of this pandemic was a really big ask, a really heavy lift for the faith-based community,” McGuire said. “That’s when the city got engaged in trying to have other options.”

The city recently approved code changes to allow temporary winter shelters to house up to 40 individuals in additional locations besides religious organizations, including schools and city recreation centers. McGuire said that originally the idea was to have the city host a temporary shelter in a recreation center; however, when considering the need to socially distance guests and potential shutdowns due to outbreaks, the city decided to use a hotel instead.

The city-led program will replace a program led by the Lawrence Community Shelter, also at the Econo Lodge, that is providing hotel vouchers to homeless individuals. That temporary program has been funded through coronavirus relief aid distributed via Douglas County and will end Dec. 30.

More than 100 people remain unsheltered in the community, according to the memo, and the new program will not be able to house all of those people but will house more than the current hotel voucher program. Specifically, the replacement city-led program will expand capacity by approximately 10 to 15 people, housing approximately 80 people — individuals and families — in the 51 rooms for the 90-day period. As permanent housing is identified for participants, unsheltered individuals will fill their spots in the hotel.

“While it’s not perfect and while it still doesn’t meet the total need, it really is a testament to our community,” said McGuire, noting that in addition to the shelter, those in the faith community and the homeless outreach team at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center have advised the city on the project, and Explore Lawrence, the city’s visitors bureau, helped generate interest from local hotels.

The memo states that no city funds are being requested for the program at this time but that any additional capacity for the program would need to come from the city’s general fund balance. Of the $250,000 cost of the 90-day, 51-room program, about $200,000 will go toward lodging, $40,000 will go to the Lawrence Community Shelter for on-site program management and about $8,500 will go toward contingencies.

Like the existing hotel voucher program, the goal will be to find permanent housing for the participants, but McGuire said that intake assessments and tracking of outcomes would be more detailed under the new program. Because it’s recommended that the program continue to be located at the Econo Lodge under the administration of the shelter, McGuire said the hope was for the transition from the voucher program to the new program to appear seamless to participants. The hotel program is in addition to the 40-person on-site capacity at the shelter and the 20-person capacity at a city-run campsite at Woody Park.

The City Commission will convene virtually at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday with limited staff in place at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St. The city has asked that residents participate in the meeting virtually if they are able to do so. A link to register for the Zoom meeting and directions to submit written public comment are included in the agenda that is available on the city’s website, lawrenceks.org.