photo by: Submitted

Standing water is shown on the gravel floor of the community building in The Village project.

Several smaller items related to the homeless situation in Lawrence have emerged recently, so here’s some news and notes on that topic:

• You might recall in late May that the Journal-World reported on a potentially shocking situation at the city of Lawrence’s Village project that provides temporary housing for people who are otherwise homeless.

When I say shocking, I mean an actual electrical shock. We reported on The Village’s community building, and how poorly constructed it was. The building actually does not have a traditional roof, but rather has a large tent that has been erected above the building’s four walls. It also doesn’t have a traditional floor and wasn’t built on any type of foundation.

As you can imagine, that doesn’t produce a very watertight building, and a tipster shared photos with the Journal-World of standing water in the building, often near electrical plug-ins that are used daily as part of the food service routine that happens in the building.

I now have word that situation is set to change. After the newspaper asked for an update, a city spokeswoman told me that “a structure has been ordered, and it will address the issues confronting the Village guests and staff.”

While I don’t have additional details yet, it sounds like the city has ordered some sort of pre-fabricated building that will replace the current homemade structure on The Village site, 256 N. Michigan St.

That decision seems in line with several of the comments we were given as part of our May 31 article. A representative with the operator of the Village — the Lawrence Community Shelter — said he definitely was concerned about the conditions at the community building, and had asked the city to address the safety issues. City officials told us at the time that they understood the concerns and were working on the plan.

Less clear, though, is why the city ever built the structure in such an untraditional manner. The entire Village project received an exemption from the city’s building codes, but that exemption primarily was granted because the city was using some prefabricated cabin-style living units that wouldn’t meet some of the size and other general code requirements. The city had several months from the time the Village project was conceived to the time that it opened that seemingly would have allowed for a traditional community building structure to be built at the site, which the city says could be in use for up to five years.

Looking ahead, though, the city says it should have a better structure in place soon.

“It’s not going to be difficult to replace the current community space with a building that is the same size, but addresses issues with leaking water,” city spokeswoman Cori Wallace said in an email to the Journal-World.

I have asked for details on when the building may open, and also how much the city is spending to buy and install the new building.

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The Village project — which has 50 cabins for people seeking shelter — is just one of several efforts underway in the city to address homelessness. One of the oldest and largest is the Lawrence Community Shelter’s emergency shelter operations on the east edge of Lawrence.

City commissioners are receiving new data about how many people that shelter served in 2023.

The big number: 785. That’s how many total individuals LCS provided emergency shelter for on at least one occasion in 2023. In other words, that is an unduplicated number representing the total number of different people who received shelter at LCS last year. The report provided to the city doesn’t make clear how that number compares to previous years.

The shelter since March has been operating with a capacity of 125 beds, according to the report. During parts of the winter, the shelter operated with a capacity of 140 beds, and the report said during those winter months, “no one was turned away even if capacity rose above 140.”

The report, which was created in response to questions the city asks of agencies that receive funding from the city, did not provide statistics on what level of capacity the shelter operated at on day-in-day-out basis in 2023.

The report did highlight that LCS has “implemented procedures” to make it less likely that law enforcement and other agencies from outside of Douglas County are bringing homeless individuals to Lawrence to be served. That issue received more public attention after Lawrence’s police chief began talking about instances where law enforcement agencies from other counties had brought residents to Lawrence to be served.

“Staff are instructed to inform individuals/agencies seeking services that we do not accept individuals that are not Douglas Co. residents or cannot demonstrate an adequate connection to Douglas County,” LCS wrote in its report to the city.

The report indicated that adequate connections could include proof of past residence in Douglas County, a unique connection to a social service provider in the county, or evidence of familial or other such support existing in Douglas County.

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photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Debris and other possessions are scattered throughout a homeless camp on the banks of the Kansas River in East Lawrence on Dec. 8, 2022.

With the Lawrence Community Shelter and the Village project both in operation, there have been questions about whether the city intends to start taking legal action against unsanctioned homeless camps that often are in violation of multiple city codes.

One of the longer standing ones is an encampment behind the Amtrak depot near Seventh and New Jersey streets. That encampment is on city-owned property, and scenes from that area have shown the encampment includes large amounts of trash, debris and other items that are in violation of several health and safety codes in the city.

I asked Wallace, the city spokeswoman, for any update on the city’s plans for the property behind the Amtrak station. Wallace didn’t provide any information about when the camp may cease to exist at the site, but she said city officials are frequently on the scene.

She said the city’s homeless solutions team has moved at least two individuals out of the camp and into The Village project. She said several other individuals from the encampment are on the wait list to move to The Village.

“The outreach team engages with every unhoused person at every camp we’re cognizant of and works to build relationships with individuals,” Wallace said via email. “Relationship building takes some time, and the outreach team is consistent.”