photo by: Journal-World

The west side of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St.

Douglas County commissioners will hear a proposal this week for a tenants’ right to counsel program that would guarantee legal representation for all renters facing eviction, regardless of income.

During a work session on Wednesday, county commissioners will hear from representatives of local advocacy group Lawrence Tenants, Kansas Holistic Defenders and the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel about the possibility of creating such a program in Douglas County.

According to a memo to commissioners from Lawrence Tenants, a program like this would cover every tenant no matter their income; cover legal proceedings in which a tenant could lose their housing or housing subsidy; provide courtroom representation, legal advice, advocacy and assistance; and require that Douglas County contact nonprofit legal providers to provide tenant legal counsel.

Lawrence Tenants is asking the County Commission to vote on the creation of a right to counsel program by Oct. 1. That way, the group says, a coordinator for the program could be hired by December and designated legal providers could start providing representation by the end of 2026. The commission will not take any action on Wednesday on the topics discussed during the work session, which is for informational purposes only.

A presentation from Lawrence Tenants attached to the commission’s meeting agenda states that a tenants’ right to counsel program would help with the anti-poverty objectives of the Community Health Improvement Plan, which is a strategic plan for health and well-being for Douglas County residents. Specifically, the presentation says, it would result in less poverty among households headed by single women.

One slide in the presentation quotes findings from Eviction Lab, a research organization based at Princeton University: “Low-income women, especially poor women of color, have a high risk of eviction … domestic violence victims and families with children are also at particularly high risk for eviction.”

In a separate presentation included with the agenda materials, the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Council cited statistics from Stout, a financial analysis firm that has studied right to counsel programs around the country. According to Stout’s statistics, jurisdictions that implement a tenants’ right to counsel program often save money by doing so, because they don’t have to spend as much on shelters, health care, foster care and other social services to help people who have been evicted. For example, a right to counsel program in Cleveland saved about $1.8 million, and a statewide program in Connecticut saved the state an estimated $5.8 million to $6.3 million in less than a year.

As the Journal-World reported, Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health has been working with the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment to study renter protection efforts, including right to counsel programs. Kansas City, Missouri, has had a right to counsel program for several years, and the report said that out of 2,042 cases that received legal representation there, 82% of them were resolved without an eviction ruling.

No regular agenda items were included on the commission’s agenda for Wednesday’s meeting as of Tuesday afternoon.

In other business, county commissioners will:

• Consider approving the 2026 annual budget report forms for Douglas County District Court, as submitted by Chief Judge James McCabria. According to the memo in the agenda, the proposed expenditures for 2026 total almost $3.2 million, up from the estimated $3 million for 2025.

The County Commission’s work session will begin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the Douglas County Commission meeting room at 1100 Massachusetts St. The business meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.