photo by: Journal-World

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

The City of Lawrence and Douglas County next week are set to host the first of a handful of community meetings intended to gather input about a draft plan to address homelessness in the county.

The meeting is set for April 20 from noon to 1:30 p.m. and will take place via Zoom. Folks who want to learn more about the draft plan and find the link to join the Zoom meeting can visit the City of Lawrence’s dedicated housing initiatives web page.

The city and county have teamed up to put together a five-year strategic plan for tackling homelessness and housing issues, with an overall objective of achieving “functional zero” homelessness by 2028 through policy, system and environmental changes — or, in other words, ensuring the number of people experiencing homelessness never exceeds the community’s capacity to move folks into permanent housing.

When the team working on the plan spoke with the Douglas County Commission about its progress at a work session in late March, they told county leaders they hoped to have a final version of the plan ready for approval by June.

Between now and then, there will be another virtual listening session and two in-person community sessions, both of which will take place in May, to gather more feedback from the public.