photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners meet on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026.

Douglas County commissioners say they would be interested in turning some of the “tiny homes” behind the city’s homeless shelter into temporary housing for individuals following a health crisis.

The pilot – Monarch CARES, which stands for Crisis And Respite Extended Stay – would be led by the county’s Familiar Faces initiative. The initiative focuses on people with complex behavioral and medical needs who frequently use jails, emergency rooms, shelters and crisis services.

To reduce the number of people heavily using emergency services, Familiar Faces wants to offer extended stays for individuals following a behavioral health or medical crisis.

Those stays would last 30 to 180 days and be at some of the units in the Monarch Village, which is 12 “tiny homes” located behind the Lawrence Community Shelter, 3655 E. 25th St.

While county commissioners did not formally vote on the pilot on Wednesday, they told county staff they would like to see it move forward.

Commissioner Shannon Reid said she was enthusiastic about the pilot because it will be addressing a gap in the care that has existed in the community.

“I’m really excited about this pilot,” Reid said. ” … This idea is a really tangible and exciting outcome to me because it is a matter of recognizing that there’s a gap that exists, (and it’s) certainly no entity’s fault. It is a fundamental failure of the systems that we are all living with and working with, predominantly in our healthcare system.”

Commissioner Patrick Kelly also said it’s much more expensive for first responders to be responding to these health crises at the moment, and having these Monarch units available will help address issues “upstream.”

As the Journal-World reported, the individuals housed through Monarch CARES may have needs that exceed what the LMH Health emergency department, the Treatment and Recovery Center or the Lawrence Community Shelter can provide. Some may need ongoing medical care, personal assistance or frequent supervision while they recover from a health crisis and work toward more permanent housing or care.

LCS has allowed several people with complex health needs to stay in Monarch units for the last 18 months while Familiar Faces has arranged additional services, and these efforts inspired the pilot.

The total cost to support the pilot for the rest of 2026 would not exceed $28,500, and any additional costs to provide health services would not exceed $8,000.

Bob Tryanski, the county’s director of behavioral health projects, said if all goes well and the county is able to offer these services in the Monarch units for a year, it will likely require ongoing funding, potentially from the county.

The pilot would begin with one to three units available in the last three months of 2026, and a program review will be completed at the end of December. If the review’s findings prove the pilot to be effective and sustainable, the goal would be to use five total Monarch units to support the programming in 2027.