photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Sam Allison-Natale, executive director of Kansas Holistic Defenders, and Brynn Blair, managing attorney for Kansas Legal Services, speak to county commissioners on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

After failing to reach a consensus on one organization to lead a six-month tenant eviction defense pilot, Douglas County commissioners decided to split the program’s allocation between the two proposed partners.

County commissioners directed staff at the end of April to solicit proposals for legal service providers to lead the pilot program from June 1 to Dec. 31, 2026. The program aims to provide access to free legal eviction defense services to eligible tenants in Douglas County and assist participants in stabilizing their current housing situation.

The plan is to use the data findings from the pilot program along with participant feedback to evaluate the program’s overall impact and whether to expand or continue the program in the future.

There were two partners who submitted proposals – statewide nonprofit Kansas Legal Services and Douglas County-based nonprofit Kansas Holistic Defenders. After almost an hour of deliberation and hearing from KLS and KHD, commissioners decided to split the funding award of $40,000 in half to both partners on Wednesday.

County staff originally recommended KLS to commissioners because it already helped operate a similar eviction defense model in Topeka. Meanwhile, there were many local supporters for KHD, arguing that the organization already has relationships in Douglas County courts, handles some housing cases locally, and is able to provide representation to undocumented tenants.

The decision to split the funding – a 3-2 vote with commissioners Gene Dorsey and Erica Anderson opposed – resulted because county commissioners were unable to choose one partner over the other, as there were arguments presented for why each of them should be involved.

Commissioner Shannon Reid was the one to suggest that her ideal scenario would be to have both entities move forward for the pilot. Reid said she couldn’t support the recommendation for KLS because she worried it might be duplicating services of KHD.

“I realize my suggestion is a bit overcomplicating,” Reid said. “But I’m worried that awarding all of it to Kansas Legal Services at this time does raise a lot of questions about what new additional and potentially duplicative processes are we adding?”

It took some time for a majority of commissioners to get on board. For some time, commissioners all had differing opinions on who should be in charge of the program.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, May 13, 2026.

Commissioner Karen Willey initially said that while she thought either partner would do a good job leading the pilot, she thought of the staff’s recommendation of KLS.

“I think both of these applicants are highly capable of doing this work,” Willey said. “I also think that they’re both very dedicated to the mission, overall … but I want to honor the process we put out there … and also the staff recommendation.”

Commissioner Patrick Kelly said while he could see potential for the two partners to work together further down the line, he was primarily supportive of awarding the contract to KLS.

Dorsey and Anderson have held a similar position since they voted against implementing a tenant eviction pilot. Dorsey’s been primarily opposed to the county solely in charge of providing costs for the project, saying a majority of renters live in Lawrence, and the city should bear some of the costs too. He also previously suggested having the $40,000 go towards rent stabilization costs and giving the money directly to tenants who need it.

“I can’t support either of these firms for getting $40,000 because people are being evicted because they don’t have money,” Dorsey said. “They can’t pay their rent. Providing legal services is not going to put money in their pocket to pay rent somewhere else.”

However, Dorsey said if he wanted to favor one partner over the other, he would choose KHD.

Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur said that while county staff initially considered splitting the funding for the pilot, they decided against it because $40,000 was a small amount. KLS and KHD leaders told commissioners that both organizations have already had conversations about how their services might overlap throughout the next six months.

Jolicoeur said if commissioners didn’t make a decision on Wednesday, it would delay providing services to tenants. KLS and KHD leaders both said that delaying the program is not the right option.

“I think … both of our organizations agree that delaying this project is not what the community needs,” Brynn Blair, managing attorney for KLS, said. “It’s not what we want. That’s delaying legal services to vulnerable populations. So if the Commission wants to throw us a curveball and talk about a joint, collaborative approach … we work fairly well together. We could figure it out.”

Sam Allison-Natale, executive director of KHD, said KHD could work on reporting their data in the format KLS reports their data, adding it’s already similar.

After KLS and KHD implied they could work together on the upcoming pilot, it swayed Willey and Kelly to vote in favor of splitting and awarding the funding to both organizations.

Reid said she did not like this process being a competition between the two organizations, and apologized for throwing both of them an unexpected curveball following the process.

“I want to acknowledge and apologize to you (both) for putting you in this position,” Reid said. “It wasn’t foreseeable to me, but I can look back on this now and understand why we got here.”

Douglas County will be co-hosting a landlord engagement event with Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, along with Tenants to Homeowners and Mental Health America of the Heartland, on Friday, May 22, at 11:00 a.m. at Flory Meeting Hall, 2120 Harper St. The goal of the event is to strengthen relationships with local landlords and invite them into the solution to address housing needs in the community.