Work is underway on an expansion of the Lawrence Community Shelter. Two dozen cabin-like shelters will soon be constructed behind the main building.
James Chiselom, executive director of LCS, shared updates on the shelter’s operations and future during a recent tour of the grounds.
New home for night-by-night shelter
“Pallet 24” is the name for the group of 24 shelters that will be installed behind the building at 3655 E. 25th St., on the far eastern edge of Lawrence, to serve people experiencing homelessness.
(Pallet shelters get their name from the Washington-based company that produces them — they are not made of pallets. They are tiny, cabin-like emergency shelters. Each shelter has an HVAC unit, so they should stay warm to be used through the winter.)
“The Village” on North Michigan Street, a community of 50 Pallet shelters, is set up for longer-term stays while people work to find housing. After about a year open, about 41% of people who had stayed there had exited to permanent housing, long-term care or transitional housing, or to stay with others temporarily.
Pallet 24 will operate quite differently, and its construction represents a major shift in how LCS operates.
In recent years, the main shelter building has primarily served folks on a night-by-night basis. Though longer-term programming has been available, it was not the main focus of LCS.
Day programming is now expanding to help more people stabilize and recover from homelessness.
Once built, Pallet 24 will take the place of night-by-night sheltering inside the main building, where participants in the shelter’s programming will be able to stay around the clock. Pallet 24 will “create different levels of programming based on different levels of need and desire,” Chiselom said.
For instance, some people need and desire a warm place to sleep safely for one cold night; others are ready, or verging on ready, to take the steps toward finding housing.
“I think desire is important because one of the things, to be trauma-informed, is that you provide people with the things they say they want, the things they say they need,” Chiselom said, rather than pushing any major changes too fast. “That’s where you start.”
Pallet 24 operation plans
The City of Lawrence has advertised the new night-by-night shelter this way via a flyer for people living outside: “Pallet 24 (low barrier): Pets are ok, partners in the same unit, sobriety not required.”
People will check into Pallet 24 in the evenings and leave in the mornings. The site will include two double restroom facilities, as well as a staff office cabin. Staff will monitor the area anytime people are staying there.
The area will also be fenced. People will be allowed to leave as they please, but once they leave for the night or morning, they won’t be able to come back inside until the next evening.
“If people have an avenue to circumvent our structure here, they will take that, because survival dictates that people do what meets their needs,” Chiselom said. “… I know that when we have more people here, it’s going to be very important that we control our environment so everybody’s safe.”
There will be onsite amnesty lockers where they can leave items they aren’t allowed to bring inside the fence with them and collect them again on their way out in the morning.
“We’re providing options for people to do the right thing,” Chiselom said. “When they don’t have the option to do the right thing, then they have more options to do the wrong thing.”
Guests are not allowed to visit each other’s units at the Village, though each unit does have a spot for a person to sleep on either side.
In contrast, LCS plans to sleep two people per night, if needed, in the tiny structures of Pallet 24. Those plans have raised concerns for some advocates.
Chiselom said LCS was still working out the details of policy around how the Pallet 24 shelters would be assigned each night.
He said he thinks most women will likely still be staying inside the main building in the women’s dorms. But the city’s Homeless Response Team can also help LCS identify couples who will likely want to stay together in one unit, he said.
However, he said people would likely be asked if there is someone they’d want to share a shelter with if they need to start doubling up.
“I don’t anticipate it being that big of a deal, but if somebody is adamantly opposed to being with somebody, they won’t have to,” Chiselom said.
“… I also want to make sure that whatever we do, it’s done safely and securely,” he said.
Expanding day programming
In the 30-day program, people know they want more than just a place to sleep, but they don’t know if they want to go through all of LCS’ programming, or to allow staff and case managers to “‘get in their business,’ as some people say, but they know they want more,” Chiselom said.
That’s when people begin to understand and identify the barriers they’re facing, Chiselom said.
“When people start to make any positive change, it can be contagious, if you can continue to find out what they want and accomplish that,” Chiselom said. “And so the more people accomplish things, the more they want to accomplish.”
The shelter’s programs are extendable, so some guests may go from the 30-day program into the 90-day program, in which guests work closely with case managers to identify their goals and, ultimately, be ready to be housed.
Some people may have jobs or disability income, and they may just need a little while longer to find housing.
Some people need help paying a security deposit or paying off back rent, and some of those issues can be dealt with in the rapid rehousing program.
“And then they need to find somebody willing to rent for them for the amount of money they have. And that’s been the biggest, hardest challenge,” Chiselom said.
As of the end of June, LCS had helped about 85 people find permanent housing so far this year. And finding housing doesn’t always mean a guest is signing a lease for their own place to live — there are other ways people can be successful in that regard.
“I’m seeing more people being reintegrated with their families that they’ve been estranged from because of whatever happened before they came here, and that’s phenomenal to me,” Chiselom said.
Inside the main building
Things have changed at the shelter since about a year ago.
Coming into a shelter that’s now cleaner, more comfortable and more inviting helps the people staying there to accomplish more, Chiselom said.
During a recent tour, a janitor was working to clean the massive floor of the men’s dorm. The shelter was visibly cleaner, and it smelled cleaner than the year prior.
Chiselom is still working to get a second floor constructed inside the men’s dorm, and to separate the storage area from the living area. LCS also has grant funds to remodel some of its restrooms and add additional showers and toilets, he said.
There’s a set of lockers available where people can securely charge their phones.
The library has new carpet — one of Chiselom’s top remodeling priorities when he started on the job last year.
The women’s dorm has been painted a vibrant green, and a member of the staff has created sparkly numbers for each bed.
The day room and some other common areas were empty enough in 2024 that we could take photos there without raising privacy concerns.
On the recent tour, the day room was full of guests — some working on computers; some talking with staff members; some singing as they folded laundry, and playfully ribbing Chiselom as he walked by. (Really.)
Pallet 24 timeline
Site work for Pallet 24 is still in progress, and the completion date that Chiselom recently estimated for the end of August is now “pending.”
Photos of the site over the last few weeks show some progress. The site will ultimately need electricity for each unit, plumbing for the restrooms and more.
But they’ll be constructed nearby Monarch Village, 12 tiny-home-like units created from shipping containers that LCS is currently using to shelter people who need medical respite.
The City of Lawrence in May announced a deadline of Aug. 15 for all camps around town to close. The city’s goal has been to close camps once there are enough shelter beds available for everyone in town who needed one, and Pallet 24 has long been part of that discussion.
The closure deadline has been extended to Sept. 12, according to an updated city flyer.
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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.
Molly Adams (she/her), photo editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2022. She can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com.
Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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