photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A new Step Up bed pod is pictured next to a row of metal shelter beds at the Lawrence Community Shelter on Monday, June 15, 2026.

When James Chiselom heard the news that an anonymous donor wanted to provide $100,000 for new Step Up beds at the Lawrence Community Shelter, he couldn’t help getting emotional.

“That $100,000, it is so phenomenal,” Chiselom, the shelter’s executive director, told the Journal-World on Monday. “I was moved to tears, because this community is validating the hard work my staff are putting into the transformation of the shelter.”

The Step Up beds are pods of bunks with stairs instead of a ladder that are designed to give guests more privacy and comfort than a traditional bed in a congregate shelter, and the anonymous donation will pay for 50 beds. The first pod was assembled on Monday from a set of premade pieces that Chiselom likened to an IKEA product, and it took a team of three people about four hours to complete.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A team at the Lawrence Community Shelter lifts a completed tower into place for the new Step Up beds on Monday, June 15, 2026.

Before the first beds went up, Chiselom said they would be key to the shelter’s core mission of emergency accommodations. “If we’re an emergency shelter and we’re about beds, the beds should be the best thing we have here,” he said.

“I would agree. Absolutely,” added a shelter guest who was talking with Chiselom. “…People’s sleep is really dependent on the quality of their bed, right? So, if you have people here who are on the lowest of the low, regardless of what’s going on in their lives, a good night’s sleep goes a really long way.”

The bunks have privacy walls so that you’re not facing someone directly across from you as you sleep. Each bed has a locker with a combination lock where guests can store their belongings, as well as a space for a lamp and charging infrastructure for guests’ devices. (That last part will not be ready immediately, because the shelter is still working on how to run electricity to the beds.)

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Jeff Watson, CEO of Sourcing Systems, assembles the stairs for a new Step Up bed pod at the Lawrence Community Shelter on Monday, June 15, 2026.

Jeff Watson, CEO of Sourcing Systems, was there to help with the installation of the first unit. He said Step Up beds were a major part of the company’s philanthropic work to serve the homeless with dignity.

“If you have a room full of single beds like these guys have, it kind of looks like a ward,” Watson said.

Step Up beds have been installed across the country from Virginia to California, Watson said; he was actually on his way to Topeka after helping the Lawrence Community Shelter install its beds to put up a unit there.

Chiselom said he actually reached out to Sourcing Systems about the beds before he became the shelter’s executive director in 2024. “It’s been in my head that long,” he said. But raising the money a couple of years ago was just “unthinkable,” he said, because of the shelter’s reputation at the time.

“Couldn’t even get out there and fundraise and donate, because our legacy was horrible,” Chiselom said.

But recently, Chiselom said, he brought downtown business owners and other stakeholders in for a tour of the shelter, and he said “they’re all in” on the work his staff has done.

“They love the transformation,” he said. “Not that I’m talking about it, but they can see it. That’s important to me.”

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A new Step Up bed pod is pictured at the Lawrence Community Shelter on Monday, June 15, 2026.

The shelter now is entering “a new phase” of improvements, Chiselom said. It’s building new bathrooms in the men’s area, complete with an ADA-accessible shower, and when the rest of the Step Up beds are in, there will be more space in the men’s area to do other things with, such as more lounge or recreation space, or a kitchenette where people can eat their dinner.

And, while the first round of Step Up beds is going to the men’s area, Chiselom eventually wants all of the shelter’s beds to be Step Up beds.

“This is just the start,” Chiselom said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Executive Director James Chiselom sits on an older shelter bed at the Lawrence Community Shelter on Monday, June 15, 2026.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

The Step Up beds at the Lawrence Community Shelter use stairs, rather than a ladder, for access to the top bunks.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Rows of metal shelter beds at the Lawrence Community Shelter are shown from the top of a pod of Step Up beds on Monday, June 15, 2026.