photo by: Journal-World

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

County staff will be asking the Douglas County Commission this week whether and how it wants to develop a right to counsel program for tenants facing eviction, although commissioners aren’t taking a vote on it just yet.

For the County Commission’s meeting on Wednesday, staff has prepared a series of questions about such a program. These include whether commissioners are interested in incorporating tenants’ right to counsel in the county code; which community partners or groups staff should consult about such a program; whether there should be eligibility guidelines for such a program; and whether the commission wants to explore additional eviction prevention efforts.

The commission met with local advocacy group Lawrence Tenants earlier in September to discuss the possibility of creating a tenants’ right to counsel program in Douglas County. That group asked the commissioners to vote on the creation of a program by Oct. 1, which is Wednesday. However, commissioners are not expected to take a vote this week.

Lawrence Tenants previously presented a draft ordinance that would cover every tenant no matter their income. It would require that Douglas County work with nonprofit legal providers to cover legal proceedings in which a tenant could lose their housing or housing subsidy.

A memo from County Administrator Sarah Plinsky ahead of the meeting shows a number of questions about the scope of the program. They include whether the county should limit the program only to renters below a certain income threshold, and which types of legal proceedings should be covered — evictions, proceedings involving rental subsidies or civil proceedings for damages or nonpayment of rent.

Dozens of advocates have spoken out at previous County Commission meetings in August and September urging commissioners to implement a tenants’ right to counsel program. Among other things, these 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.

In other business, county commissioners will:

• Meet with housing partners and review two 2026 funding requests from Tenants to Homeowners to clarify the group’s role in the supportive housing system. One of those requests 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.

While the funding was approved, 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 have also invited other agencies engaged in supportive housing services and property/rental management services for 2026. This discussion will take place in a work session, and will be for informational purposes only.

• Consider approving 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.

The County Commission’s work session will begin at 4 p.m. 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.