photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Homeless Response Team held a lunch for people experiencing homelessness at Sandra Shaw Community Health Park on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

In Sandra Shaw Park on Wednesday, homeless advocates were serving hot dogs, baked beans and two important messages for the unhoused in Lawrence.

One was simple enough to fit on a flyer: a list of resources, and a notice that they won’t be allowed to camp outside anymore once beds are available at the new Pallet 24 shelter in August.

The other one, in the experience of advocates, is much harder to get across: We care about you, and we want to help you live a safer, more dignified life.

“No one should have to live without access to water, bathrooms, electricity or protection from violence,” said Misty Bosch-Hastings, the director of the city’s Homeless Solutions Division, via email. “People deserve better, and we are working to make that possible.”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Misty Bosch-Hastings speaks at an Integrated Outreach Event on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

Wednesday’s luncheon was the start of the Homeless Response Team’s summertime effort to notify individuals residing in the camps about the city’s no-camping ordinance — and the Pallet 24 shelter, which is expected to open behind the Lawrence Community Shelter’s main building at 3655 E. 25th St. by Aug. 15.

As the Journal-World reported, the City of Lawrence awarded funding in December for LCS for the Pallet 24 project. It will put 24 prefabricated, 64-square-foot Pallet cabins behind the shelter building to use as a new low-barrier, pet-friendly shelter.

Because not everyone who is unhoused is a good fit for a shelter like LCS, Bosch-Hastings said the Pallet 24 project is designed specifically for people who may not engage with a traditional shelter setting due to trauma, behavioral health needs, pets or other barriers to entry.

Bosch-Hastings told the Journal-World that the city’s current policy is that nobody is allowed to camp in the central business district if shelter beds are available. Violating the no-camping ordinance by sleeping, storing belongings or living on public property can lead to up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

But the flyers passed out Wednesday say that, starting in mid-August, camping will no longer be allowed anywhere in Lawrence.

“Encampment Closure: Effective Aug. 15,” the flyer reads. “Camping will no longer be allowed anywhere in Lawrence, including Brook Creek Park, Burcham Park and Sandra Shaw Park.”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

A couple dozen people gathered at a lunch hosted by the Homeless Response Team on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

• • •

Bosch-Hastings said her hope is that all outdoor camping in the city can come to an end with the opening of Pallet 24. She said the point is not to punish people, but to make sure people have a safe place to stay.

“Our role is to make sure people have real, accessible alternatives to living outdoors, and that those alternatives are rooted in dignity, safety and support,” Bosch-Hastings said via email. “We will continue to focus on providing resources, not punishment, and building a system where no one has to sleep outside because they lack better options.”

That’s easy to say, as homeless advocates know, but it doesn’t work unless you can build trust with the people you’re trying to help.

Trina Tinsley told the Journal-World that she’s been doing that trust-building work for three years now. It was her son Jax who inspired her efforts to take food and services directly to those in need, she said.

“He was eight years old and saw tents on the other side of (a) bridge, and said, ‘Mom, why can’t we just feed them?” Tinsley said.

So Tinsley and her son founded The Jax Project, an organization that serves meals and provides resources to unhoused individuals in the community. When she had the opportunity to help the city more directly with its homeless response efforts, she took it.

“So for three years, we’ve been coming out to the camp,” she said, “and Misty approached me and asked me about starting up aftercare services.”

Both food and other supports were a part of the outreach on Wednesday, as a couple dozen people gathered for hot dogs, chips, pasta salad and other picnic fare while case managers and other HRT staff walked around and spoke to the unhoused people there about the services available.

The HRT was offering help with reserving a shelter bed; applying for more permanent housing, IDs and benefits; coordinating services with health care providers; transportation; job placement; and planning a return to an individual’s home community if they’re not a Lawrence resident. All of those things were on the flyers passed out at the lunch, and until the Pallet 24 shelter opens, there will be weekly check-ins at the camps and monthly resource events at Burcham Park and Sandra Shaw Park.

• • •

According to the unofficial point-in-time count released earlier this year — which counts how many people are sleeping outside on a single night in January — unsheltered homelessness in the Lawrence area has dropped 66% over the past year as shelter options have expanded and outreach has become more individualized and coordinated.

But many people are still left outside and have been struggling with where to go from here.

JoeLarry Hunter, a former resident of the Amtrak camp that closed in October, said when that camp was cleared last year around the wintertime, a lot of homeless people had nowhere to go, and still don’t.

“They have to keep starting over and over again,” he said.

Even basic necessities like bathroom facilities have been harder to come by. Hunter told the Journal-World that the porta-potties have been removed from Sandra Shaw Park, and it has been difficult for park residents to find somewhere to use the bathroom.

Hunter also said he knows people don’t want to see trash everywhere at the parks, and that many people in the camps are willing to clean it up, but they don’t have the proper tools.

“If we’re willing to clean it up, maybe they have a different look on the homeless population,” Hunter said. “But they’re not willing to meet us halfway on that.”

Bridging the gap will require letting the people in the camps know that the community cares about them, and that means keeping up the in-person interactions and bringing services to people where they are. Tinsley said that in her work, she has seen people who swore that they never wanted to be housed and preferred to be alone in the camps. But they were still able to benefit from the services that Tinsley helped provide.

“Pouring love and value into them until they can see themselves in a better place,” Tinsley said, “is what it is all about.”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Homeless Response Team staff gathered at Sandra Shaw Community Health Park on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

A woman gives her dogs, Prince and Mafia, water at a lunch hosted by the Homeless Response Team on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

The Homeless Response Team held a lunch for people experiencing homelessness at Sandra Shaw Community Health Park on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Several resources from the Homeless Response Team were offered to people experiencing homelessness at a lunch on Wednesday, May 14, 2025.