To the editor:

Ironically, the Lawrence Cares folks who were, only a few months ago, demanding the city do something about unhoused folks bothering businesses are now recommending voting “No” on the proposed 5 cents per $100 increased sales tax to continue the very programs the city developed to address their concerns.

They are against this very small increase “because of concerns about a lack of transparency for the funding.” To know how the funds are being spent, all they need do is read media coverage.

With the city’s help, Lawrence Community Shelter increased capacity from 25 guests to 125. Fifty new Pallet cabins provide housing for those in transition from homelessness, with more cabins about to be placed behind the shelter. The shelter is rehabbing Monarch Village, designed by KU architecture students, to make it habitable again. The shelter Board hired a capable executive director and expanded staffing with city funding.

Campsites have been addressed with compassion and tenacity by the collaborative Homeless Response Team for folks living with some of life’s most complicated challenges. When campsites need to be closed, the team facilitates humane transitions. They do some of the hardest work anyone can undertake.

The Lawrence Cares group suggests, instead, we all donate to the shelter. We’ve had decades to see how that works. Dependence on private donations led to the shelter’s capacity being reduced to 25. But if we all contribute just a nickel more each time we spend $100, the work cited above can continue and expand as we help our unhoused neighbors to a better future.

Nancy Jorn,

Lawrence