Tenant rights educator included in $1.2M the City of Lawrence will spend on housing initiatives in 2025

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The City of Lawrence is doling out $1.2 million from its sales tax coffers for affordable housing and housing-adjacent projects. New this year will be a community educator to help renters learn their rights.

The city’s Affordable Housing Advisory Board heard presentations from organizations and developers in October. They deliberated and decided on their recommendations for projects and initiatives that they believed the city should fund in 2025, and the Lawrence City Commission approved the recommendations earlier this month.

City residents in November 2017 voted 62% in favor of a 10-year, .05% affordable housing sales tax. Prior to these recent approvals, the funds had contributed to the construction of more than 700 units of affordable housing in Lawrence — some completed, some still in progress.

Altogether, the applications for the 2025 round of funding sought more than $4 million, but the affordable housing sales tax fund receipts available totaled $1.2 million.

Among the approved awards, a local grassroots organization, Lawrence Tenants, will be granted $70,000 to fund the position of a community educator.

The educator will “execute public programming and other activities to engage with renters, particularly underrepresented renters and those below the area median income (AMI),” according to the group’s funding application. “Over the next year, educators will increase tenant awareness of renter protections and empower people with lived experience related to housing affordability and instability.”

In presenting to the Affordable Housing Advisory Board in October, Lawrence Tenants organizer Vince Munoz said that in a good month, volunteers can put on six hours of educational programming. That’s less than one business day for a paid community educator, he said.

“So this would really greatly enhance our ability to engage with people, tell them about their rights, and just make sure that that these laws and the ordinances that the city and county are passing are actually enforced,” he said. “… Educating tenants is the first step in empowering them to report violations.”

Funding for a community educator adds a new category of spending for the city’s affordable housing sales tax receipts.

Charts in this article show spending broken into categories of new housing, meaning units that will be constructed or otherwise made available as affordable housing when it wasn’t before; home improvements, or funds that will support modifications or repairs to make housing accessible; housing vouchers, to subsidize rent payments; and emergency rental and utility assistance, to help people remain housed in times of financial hardship.

Along with adding the new category of tenant education, AHAB’s 2025 recommendations increased the percentage of funds going toward home accessibility improvements.

Percentage-wise, the city has allocated slightly less toward creating new affordable housing units than it has in some recent years.

Other approved awards for 2025

Overall, the city has less than half the sales tax receipts to spend on affordable housing and associated initiatives in 2025 than it had for 2024:

Projects listed here might still require other approvals and may be seeking additional funding before they come to fruition.

• Douglas County Housing Stabilization Collaborative: $200,000

Funds will be used to provide emergency rental and utilities assistance so people can remain housed in Douglas County. (Requested: $550,000)

“The collaborative is a collective impact group of social service agencies and government whose mission is to prevent evictions and homelessness through short-term housing assistance,” according to a city news release. Learn more on the county’s website at this link.

• Flint Hills Holdings, 9 Del Lofts II: $450,000

New mixed-use, mixed-income apartment housing planned for the northwest corner of Ninth and Delaware streets in East Lawrence.

It will include 36 units that are restricted for people whose incomes are 30%, 40% and 60% of the area median income (AMI) as well as 15 market-rate units. It will also include some live/work units on the ground floor. (Requested: $740,000)

• Lawrence Habitat for Humanity: $100,000

In addition to helping people become first-time homeowners, Habitat for Humanity has a critical repair program.

The organization partners with homeowners in the community to complete necessary home repairs such as new roofs, ramps, plumbing, heating and cooling and more “to ensure affordable housing remains affordable and homes are safe, healthy and decent for years to come,” according to the release. (Requested: $10,000)

• Independence Inc.: $75,000

The organization’s accessible housing programs helps seniors and people with disabilities make accessibility modifications to their homes. That can include things like entry ramps, accessible showers and toilets, grab bars, widening of doorways for walkers or wheelchair access and more. (Requested: $75,000)

• Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority: $150,000 and $50,000

The housing authority will be awarded $150,000 for Delmar Place, a complex of new permanently affordable housing units for seniors coming soon to 2125 Clinton Parkway, near Clinton Place apartments.

The funds will help cover a $200,000 anticipated expense to replace a fire hydrant that LDCHA was told would be necessary late in the planning process.

“These improvements are critical to ensuring that the site complies with safety regulations and that the new units are protected in case of emergencies,” according to the application. (Requested: $200,000)

LDCHA will also receive $50,000 to use for its New Horizons Transitional Housing Program. The program provides two years of rental assistance along with case management to help people transition into affordable rental housing, according to the city’s news release. (Requested: $50,000)

• Senior Resource Center for Douglas County: $25,000

The funds go toward helping seniors with low incomes make accessibility modifications to their homes so they can safely age in place. Funds will help fill gaps that aren’t covered by other programs. (Requested: $53,000)

• Tenants to Homeowners: $80,000

The funds will go toward TTH’s affordable rental management program.

The nonprofit’s program, in partnership with property owners, rehabilitates vacant, dilapidated and/or underutilized housing “for the purpose of creating a new unit of affordable housing,” according to the release. (Requested: $200,000)

Lawrence voters in November approved a citywide sales tax increase. Effective in April, the city will collect an extra nickel per $100 spent. That funding will go toward affordable housing and homelessness initiatives.

Read more about that at this link and check out how the city voted on the ballot question at this link.

See the complete applications submitted to AHAB for each project at this link. (Note: The 1,007-page document at the link may be slow to load.)

Affordable Housing Advisory Board meeting recordings can be viewed on the city’s YouTube playlist at this link. Meeting agendas are available via the city’s agenda portal at this link.

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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.

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