photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

County Commissioner Erica Anderson and City Commissioner Kristine Polian speak a community meeting about "A Place for Everyone" on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

A conversation billed as reassessing Douglas County’s homelessness plan initially sparked tension between attendees on Wednesday, with advocates and service providers saying the meeting gave the impression that the community’s existing strategy was looking to be dismantled.

However, county and city commissioners at the panel said that wasn’t the case, and by the end of the meeting, most of its attendees agreed that the joint city-county homelessness plan should be examined more closely.

“You should always look at things that you’re doing to make sure you’re doing it correctly,” someone from Wednesday’s crowd said.

The event, “Reassessing ‘A Place for Everyone’ – A Path to Stabilization 2026,” was organized by multiple community members and Sen. Marci Francisco, and it was held at the Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vermont St. The meeting came after County Commissioner Erica Anderson and John Ims, a Lawrence resident and frequent public commenter at city and county meetings, put together a 25-page report evaluating the effectiveness of the ‘A Place for Everyone’ plan, as the Journal-World reported.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

County Commissioner Gene Dorsey speaks at a panel on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

The “A Place for Everyone” plan is the city and county’s five-year plan to end chronic homelessness in Douglas County. The end goal is to achieve functional zero by 2028, where the number of people experiencing homelessness is lower or equal to the number of people moving into permanent housing each month. Anderson’s report had concerns that the county may not meet its goal.

The meeting attracted at least 100 people, many of whom were community partners and advocates. Those attendees thought the meetings’ organizers didn’t accurately portray the current homeless response system and were concerned the commissioners wanted the plan to be scrapped completely.

The tension largely stemmed from a YouTube video summarizing the findings in Anderson’s report that was shown at the start of the meeting. Multiple attendees said the video made it appear that organizers wanted to scrap the plan entirely, creating unnecessary fear among advocates and service providers who had spent years developing it.

“We have been in a number of committees and subcommittees for years, and meetings after meetings,” Kristen Egan, housing and human services program manager for Douglas County, said, referring to the process of crafting the existing plan.

But all of the sitting commissioners at the meeting – Anderson, County Commissioner Gene Dorsey and City Commissioner Kristine Polian – told the audience that starting over with the plan was not the goal.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

John Ims, a Lawrence resident, was an organizer for a panel with city and county commissioners about the “A Place for Everyone” plan on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

“I don’t think we ever wanted to scrap the plan,” Polian said. ” … We want to make sure we’re doing the best that we can for our most vulnerable, and being effective, and taking the community into consideration and the advocates.”

“And the ones I have talked to don’t feel like it’s effective either,” Polian added.

According to Anderson’s report, the city and county do not track outcomes such as whether people remain housed after utilizing services, reduce their use of emergency services or have fewer interactions with law enforcement after being placed in housing. It also argues the data used to measure homelessness is incomplete and understates the homeless population, while shelter trends indicate the number of people experiencing homelessness is increasing rather than declining.

On Wednesday, the report was said to be a starting point for further discussions and conversations, especially since Anderson, Dorsey and Polian all agreed that many of their questions they have asked about “A Place for Everyone” to city and county staff have gone unanswered.

An example is financial transparency with “A Place for Everyone” costs. When the plan was finalized in 2024, it was estimated around $267.77 million would be needed to implement the plan in five years.

Commissioners said they’ve been trying to figure out how much money has been spent on the plan to date, but those figures have been difficult to calculate for staff, as spending is spread across numerous departments and organizations. Dorsey even attempted to share some figures on Wednesday, but admitted a majority of that money just went towards organizations’ operating costs.

“It’s very hard to track the cost,” Egan said. ” … I know that ($267.77 million) is big. It’s scary. It’s actually more expensive to not house chronically homeless people because of all those EMS calls.”

Meanwhile, the meeting eventually shifted to a broader issue between county commissioners and staff. Anderson and Dorsey both said they requested to have a meeting with county and city commissioners multiple times, but felt those requests were not moving forward.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

At least 100 people attend a panel about the “A Place for Everyone” plan on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.

Anderson said the request to reassess “A Place for Everyone” had been “ignored” and that getting topics placed on the county commission agenda required majority support.

Anderson said the meeting was to increase public pressure on local leaders, saying the organizers of the meeting were “raising the heat” because previous efforts to bring city and county officials together to reassess the plan had not succeeded.

“We have been talking about this issue, and we have been raising the heat, and we have been asking for this conversation,” Anderson said.

“If we don’t raise the heat, we do not bring this conversation to the community,” Anderson said.

At the end of the meeting, all three commissioners asked the public about their interest in scheduling additional conversations surrounding “A Place for Everyone.” Attendees expressed an interest in future events and inviting people with lived experience of homelessness to a panel discussion as well as unhoused residents themselves.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Kristen Egan, Kirsten Egan, housing and human services program manager for Douglas County, attends a panel about the “A Place for Everyone” plan on Wednesday, July 29, 2026.