photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The Pallet 24 cabins are pictured behind the Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.

The City of Lawrence won’t partner with churches and other community sites for walk-in winter shelter this year, but it expects that newly added capacity at the Lawrence Community Shelter will be enough to handle demand.

On Tuesday, the city released more details about its winter emergency shelter plan in a news release, and it said that all inclement weather sheltering services will go through the Lawrence Community Shelter this year.

That’s a change from last winter, when the city partnered with churches to provide overflow shelter when the Lawrence Community Shelter filled up.

“In recent years, congregations helped operate overflow shelters; that model is no longer in place,” the city said on its emergency sheltering website. “All emergency winter sheltering is centralized at LCS for safety and service coordination.”

In February of this year, the city approved a $3.5 million funding agreement with the Lawrence Community Shelter, which lays out that LCS will provide emergency and winter sheltering services. And the shelter also installed 24 Pallet cabins behind its building earlier this year, which can provide 48 beds of low-barrier shelter.

“We created 48 additional beds that we didn’t have last year,” Misty Bosch-Hastings, the director of the city’s Homeless Solutions Division, told the Journal-World. “We never had more than 43 folks in our two (winter shelter) overflows last year.”

With the Pallet 24 cabins, the shelter currently lists its total capacity as 223 people per night. But that figure includes the 50 beds at The Village on North Michigan Street, another Pallet cabin project, which are normally not a night-by-night shelter option. The Village is instead designed to house people for up to six months as they transition out of homelessness.

Bosch-Hastings told the Journal-World that no additional beds beyond the current 50 would be made available at The Village during inclement weather.

At the shelter’s main facility at 3655 E. 25th St., there are 125 beds in the building in addition to the 48 in Pallet 24. If there is an extraordinary need beyond the shelter’s available space, Bosch-Hastings said, there were still partners the city could work with. “But I don’t foresee that need coming to fruition,” she added.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The Pallet 24 cabins are pictured behind the Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St., on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025.

Here are a few more things to know about how the emergency shelter program will work this winter.

What counts as inclement weather?

Bosch-Hastings said that inclement weather, for the purposes of the plan, is a temperature of 32 degrees or below. The city said it would provide updates on the status of the winter shelter plan at lawrenceks.gov/safe-shelter.

Getting to the shelter

The city suggests using Lawrence Transit buses to get to the shelter. Bus routes 1 and 5, which are part of the same loop, will take riders to the shelter, and they can be accessed from Central Station at 2315 Bob Billings Parkway.

The fixed-route buses are free to ride, and they run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, although the city notes that transit services will only run as long as road conditions remain safe. There is also an on-demand service that operates after 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and all day on Sundays; while the Connected City Advisory Board voted to start charging a fare for this service, that fare would not go into effect until March 2026.

Alcohol, drugs and pets

The city’s website describes the emergency shelter plan as a “Harm-Prevention Model.” That means people under the influence of alcohol or drugs will still be allowed in as long as they do not pose a danger to themselves or others. Pets will also be allowed, although they may be required to be in a kennel or to wear a muzzle.

Daytime services and meals

During inclement-weather operations, the city’s release said, the shelter will provide meals to guests. Bosch-Hastings said that the city’s agreement with the Lawrence Community Shelter this year covers providing those meals.

The shelter will also allow guests to stay during the day “when no other safe indoor option is available or when weather conditions remain dangerous.” Normally, the shelter requires its night-by-night users to leave by 8 a.m.

Unlike last winter, people won’t be allowed to use the city’s recreation centers as warming sites during the day. Starting in January 2026, access to the rec centers will be limited to those with memberships or day passes.

How to help

Opportunities to volunteer or donate supplies may be available during the winter shelter season. The city said that those interested can contact the shelter at lcshrt@lawrenceshelter.org or (785) 832-8864.

If you know someone in need of shelter, you can also contact the shelter directly by phone or email and let staff know.