The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission on Wednesday voted in favor of plans to build 24 new cabin-like Pallet shelters behind the Lawrence Community Shelter building to provide up to 48 people overnight shelter through the winter.
LCS plans to have two people assigned randomly to each unit for overnight shelter on a night-by-night basis for the 24 new Pallet shelters to be built on a paved area behind the shelter’s main building at 3655 E. 25th St., as reported in this article from last month.
Lawrence Community Shelter Executive Director James Chiselom never responded to our follow-up questions asking whether he had any concerns about putting two strangers together in the 8-by-8 cabins.
“It’s a congregate shelter, and for people that just come for 12 hours a night, that’s overwhelming,” Chiselom told the planning commission of the main shelter building. “We believe that having one person or two people in a cabin will give a better experience for people to be amenable to come into the shelter, because one of the biggest reasons that people say they don’t want to come to the shelter is the space and the amount of people in one space.”
Chair Prasanth Duvvur asked if there would be partitions between the beds inside the Pallet shelters to give people staying in them some privacy. There will not, city planner Sandy Day told him.
Altogether, Chiselom said, LCS expects to have the capacity for 173 people onsite this winter. That includes up to 24 people in Monarch Village units (shelters constructed from shipping containers), up to 101 people inside the main shelter building and up to 48 people in the 24 Pallet shelters.
Pallet shelters get their name from the Washington-based company that produces them — they are not made of pallets. Each unit has an HVAC unit, so they should stay warm to be used through the winter.
LCS also operates the Village, aka Pallet shelter village — the community of 50 Pallet shelters that have been in use since mid-March at 256 N. Michigan St.
Those units are intended for longer-term stays as people transition out of homelessness. Only one person is allowed to be in a Pallet at a time at the village.
Commissioners had a few questions about specifics regarding the plans and what the conditional use permit would entail. No members of the public spoke to the planning commission about this item.
LCS will have to provide the city with proof of fire code compliance as a condition of the permit.
“I just want to be sure that everybody that we’re housing there on a temporary basis is safe and sound,” Planning Commissioner Jane Eldredge said after asking a number of questions.
Commissioners unanimously approved the permit.
“I’m excited especially hearing about the flexibility that this will allow for different types of housing and accommodating individuals for their individual needs,” Commissioner Chelsi Hayden said just ahead of the vote.
The permit will go to the Lawrence City Commission for consideration next. It wasn’t immediately clear when it will be on the city commission’s agenda, but LCS has hoped to keep the process moving quickly in order to get the Pallet cabins built and available for use before winter hits.
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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.
More coverage of housing and homelessness:
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