photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Members of advocacy group Lawrence Tenants and other individuals supporting a tenants' right to counsel program in Douglas County attended the County Commission meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.

Douglas County commissioners are interested in creating a right to counsel program for tenants facing eviction, and county staff is beginning to work on a formal proposal for them to review.

The County Commission discussed the idea of a tenants’ right to counsel program during its meeting on Wednesday, continuing a conversation that’s been going on across multiple meetings since August. Local advocacy group Lawrence Tenants met with commissioners in September and urged them to vote on the creation of such a program by Oct. 1.

Commissioners did not actually take such a vote this week. Instead, county staff was looking for direction on where the commission would like to go with such a program.

Members of Lawrence Tenants are now asking commissioners to put a vote on the agenda for Oct. 22. But County Administrator Sarah Plinsky said there are several steps before a program or policy statement could be brought forward, and she didn’t think it would be ready by then. She told commissioners that she couldn’t provide a timeline for when it would be ready.

“I know I can’t do the 22nd,” Plinsky told commissioners. She said that was just weeks away, “so I would be reluctant to give you a time frame.”

Commissioner Shannon Reid – who has expressed support for a tenants’ right to counsel program at previous meetings – said eviction cases often come up in Douglas County District Court.

“The District Court is governed by the state,” Reid said. “We fund it. We collaborate with them to try and effectively service community members … We want (the program) to be available countywide.”

Reid said that she also sees this as a pivotal part of ‘A Place for Everyone,’ the joint City of Lawrence and county plan to end chronic homelessness.

“This is a very effective, very evidence based, proven time and time again tool at effectively preventing homelessness,” Reid said. “Does it prevent all homelessness? No. Is it going to stop all evictions or prevent all evictions? No … It’s about making sure that people have access to legal counsel.”

Commissioner Erica Anderson also said she was supportive of a tenants’ right to counsel program, and she doesn’t think income limits or other restrictions should be placed on who’s eligible for the program.

“I think if you have had any sort of eviction and you’ve lost your job … anyone can fall into that trap,” Anderson said, adding that she doesn’t want the county to prevent anyone from getting the help if they need it.

Previously, Lawrence Tenants provided a draft ordinance that would actually change the county code to guarantee a right to counsel for every tenant no matter their income. Commissioner Karen Willey said that while this could be discussed in the future, the county should focus on developing programming before it talks about changing the county code.

“It doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t fund anything,” Willey said of a potential code change. ” … It also seems a little odd, since we don’t do that for a lot of other (programs).”

As with the past meetings on this issue, dozens of members of Lawrence Tenants and other community members attended the meeting on Wednesday to advocate for a tenants’ right to counsel program. Among other things, the advocates assert that jurisdictions that implement a tenants’ right to counsel program often save money by doing so, because they reduce the need for services like emergency shelters, health care, foster care and other social supports.

“I want to live in a county where everyone has access to stable housing, and a critical step towards that goal is to make sure that tenants have the ability to enforce their existing state rights,” one commenter said.

Commissioner Gene Dorsey said he would like to gather more information from Kansas Legal Services and Douglas County Legal Aid about their work in Topeka and Lawrence as part of the ongoing discussions.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Met with housing partners and reviewed two 2026 funding requests from Tenants to Homeowners to clarify each group’s role in the supportive housing system. One of the requests from Tenants to Homeowners is for $500,000 for five new supportive housing units, and the other is for $100,000 in ongoing funding for a supportive housing rental management specialist.

The funding was approved for both of the requests, but commissioners had plans to revisit the requests after the 2026 budget was adopted in order to better understand Tenants to Homeowners’ role in managing supportive housing. Commissioners also invited other agencies engaged in supportive housing services and property/rental management services for 2026. The discussion took place during a work session, and no action followed the session as it was for informational purposes only.

• Approved a resolution designating the intersection of North 800 Road and East 1550 Road as an all-way stop intersection. Palmyra Township has requested the change in stop conditions at the intersection. According to a memo in the agenda, northbound North 800 Road currently has a stop sign in place. East 1550 Road, which currently has uninterrupted east-west traffic flow, would have stop signs installed in both directions.