photo by: Bremen Keasey/Journal-World

Lawrence Homeless Response Team members heading deeper into Burcham Park to talk to unhoused people in their camps.

The final 2025 point-in-time homeless count said Lawrence and Douglas County has reduced its unsheltered homelessness by 63% in just one year.

“While Lawrence’s unsheltered count is smaller than in large metro areas, the scale of change is extraordinary,” Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the city’s homeless solutions division, said in a release. “Between January 2024 and January 2025, nearly 100 people moved from living outdoors into shelter or housing.”

In 2024, around the same time the annual count was conducted, the city of Lawrence and Douglas County had 142 unsheltered individuals, but this year, the count included 52 people who were unsheltered.

Each year, state agencies conduct the Point-in-Time Count, as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. This count provides a snapshot of the number of both sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals in a community on a single night in January. The latest count found 290 homeless individuals in Douglas County — a nearly 30% decrease from last year’s total of 414.

But this count doesn’t reflect a complete picture of homelessness in a certain area, just one night. The survey also asks a variety of personal questions and some of the participants may choose not to answer.

The count was facilitated by the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, and Douglas County is one of 101 counties in Kansas included in the Balance of State Continuum of Care – which addresses homelessness in areas that are less densely populated in Kansas, often rural, or where local resources are limited. The KSHC excludes Shawnee, Johnson, Wyandotte and Sedwick counties, which all operate on their own continuums of care.

Despite the significant decrease in unsheltered homeless individuals, Douglas County is still ranked high in the total number of homeless throughout the state. There are only two other counties in the state that have counted larger numbers of homeless individuals than Douglas County in the 2025 count: Sedgwick County, which includes Wichita, had 736 people, and Shawnee County, home to Topeka, had 534 people.

Johnson County, which has half a million more people living there, had fewer people experiencing homelessness this year than Douglas County with 253 individuals for a difference of 37.

According to data from the point-in-time count for Douglas County, 38% of the people surveyed said this was their first time experiencing homelessness. Additionally, 21% of the individuals experiencing homelessness are currently employed. There were also 24 people who reported a monthly income, and the average between those individuals was $1,284 per month.

The count also found that 81% of the people surveyed have been in Douglas County longer than 12 months. In addition, 11% have been in the county between zero to six months and 8% have been living in the county for seven to 12 months.

According to Journal-World calculations, in January, a total of 2,406 people were counted as experiencing homelessness across most of the state, with Douglas County accounting for 12% of that number. The Journal-World calculated the total by combining the point-in-time counts from Shawnee, Johnson, and Sedgwick counties with figures from the Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition, which doesn’t include those counties in its data. Data for Wyandotte County has not yet been released, as it is reported alongside the total for Kansas City.

Bosch-Hastings said the reduction in unsheltered homelessness is a reflection of a community-wide effort. She said the outreach model, which works to bring services directly to people and create coordinated shelter pathways along with strong partnerships across agencies.

“It means more than a number: it’s nearly 100 of our neighbors no longer sleeping outside, now connected to care and on the path to sustainability,” Bosch-Hastings said in the release.