The city’s homeless programs coordinator says a decision to close a North Lawrence campsite for people experiencing homelessness was solidified before she was consulted, and though she advocated against it, her supervisors dismissed her concerns and moved forward with the plan anyway.
In a column on Sunday, Jenn Wolsey called into question the version of events the city has provided about the support camp debacle — which involved an abrupt unannounced closure of a homeless support camp that had been intended to remain open until March, and then a swift reopening after a substantial public outcry, all over the span of about five days.
The ordeal has raised questions of transparency regarding big decisions that city management and staff members are making without input from the Lawrence City Commission or the public.
Wolsey’s column adds to that concern that city management is also not giving meaningful weight to frontline staff members’ expertise.
Wolsey wrote that her supervisors told her on Wednesday, Dec. 7, that city leadership had decided to close the support site as soon as possible. She wrote that she had suggested keeping the site open on a condensed scale and recommended an alternative plan, “and again was not heard.”
Despite her protests in meetings over the next couple of days, the decision was moving forward, she wrote.
“I warned them of the backlash and trauma this would cause. In the end, though, my advocacy and recommendation were overruled by those in power above me,” Wolsey wrote. “I was told it was going to be shut down, so at the very least I asked it to be shut down in the most dignified way allowed.”
Wolsey left Thursday’s meeting early, “telling them they all better get in front of this because it was going to be a mess,” she wrote.
By 2 p.m. Friday, she hadn’t seen any public announcement from the city about the plans to close the camp, so she drafted one for city leaders to consider.
“I waited until 5 p.m. to hear something about an official announcement, but nothing came,” Wolsey wrote. “So I did what I said I was going to do and leadership knew I was going to do. I went to the site and started posting and providing notifications.”
Camp residents told us that Wolsey had posted the notifications on Friday in order to give them as much time as possible to get ready to go.
“The city has always previously used and continued to use in most recent cleanups a minimum of 24 hours of notice for cleanup. I was determined we would give more time,” Wolsey wrote. “… I did all I could do the best I could with what I was being instructed to do.”
Ultimately, the city did not publicly address the closure until the following Tuesday morning (Dec. 13).
When asked in a phone interview Friday whether any city staff members had spoken against closing the support camp, Porter Arneill, a spokesperson for the city who attended the meetings, said that he couldn’t remember.
“I’m reluctant to say anything in the sense that I just don’t remember exactly what was said by anybody,” Arneill said. He said no one kept notes of the Housing Initiatives Division meeting’s focus.
Communication with the public
We learned from a camp resident the following Monday (Dec. 12) about the plans to close the camp, and we reached out to the city to request information. No information was released publicly prior to the residents of the camp being notified.
“That was an error within our team, because we had full intention of communicating this (to the city commission, camp residents and public),” Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard said in an interview Thursday. “And that was unfortunate that that didn’t occur. And that’s what we’re taking responsibility for, it not occurring the way that it should have.”
On Tuesday morning, the city issued a news release about the plans — days after Wolsey had submitted a draft announcement, according to her column.
City Manager Craig Owens said last week that he and other city staff members are discovering that decisions on houselessness might require more diligent communication with the public.
Theoretically, Lawrence city commissioners could require HID to seek guidance on large decisions, Commissioner Brad Finkeldei said Monday. But he would prefer city staff be able to use discretion to avoid stifling their ability to function independently. Requiring consultation from the city commission on every impactful decision would be a limiting solution, he said.
Openness, transparency and honesty on city decisions are key, Finkeldei said, and this decision is one that would have benefited from public transparency, since the original plan presented to the commission said the camp would close in March.
“In this case, you know, it was understood the camp was going to close in March,” Finkeldei said. “So, you know, it never really occurred to (commissioners) I think to direct staff to, you know, ‘Oh, and by the way, if you change your mind …’”
Commissioner Amber Sellers said Friday that she hopes “that we have learned enough from this process that we will do as much of the risk management mitigation as possible, so that we don’t do something that creates trauma, as I know this has done.”
Moving forward
In her column, Wolsey raised concerns that she’s not been given direction of what to do since city management reversed course and decided to keep the support site open — but she has also been warned not to take action without guidance.
The reversal came on the heels of 30 members of the public speaking to the Lawrence City Commission at its Dec. 13 meeting. Wolsey drove some residents of the camp to City Hall to speak, and that wasn’t the first time she had done so, she wrote — but two days later, she received warning that she was not supposed to use her personal vehicle.
“Again, everyone knew I always did this, so why was I now being corrected?” she wrote.
The city announced that it is committed to keeping the North Lawrence support site open until mid-March, with intentions of having longer-term solutions in place by then. Arneill also confirmed last week that residents who did leave the site after the notices were posted may return.
We reached out to multiple city officials seeking comment for this story Monday, including Owens; Stoddard; Arneill; Danelle Walters, housing initiatives manager; Jeff Crick, director of planning and development services; Cicely Thornton, homeless programs project specialist; Vice Mayor Bart Littlejohn; City Commissioner Courtney Shipley; and Mayor Lisa Larsen.
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Chansi Long (she/her) reported for The Lawrence Times from July 2022 through August 2023. Read more of her work for the Times here.
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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