Two nonprofit legal organizations were competing for a contract to run an eviction defense pilot program in Douglas County. They agreed Wednesday to collaborate on the contract to render legal services to tenants as fast as possible in the face of a “clunky” initiative rollout.
Douglas County commissioners voted 3-2 Wednesday to contract both Kansas Legal Services and Kansas Holistic Defenders to run a tenant eviction defense pilot program from June 1 to December 31.
Commissioners Erica Anderson and Gene Dorsey voted against the contract because they are opposed to the program altogether.
In April, county staff issued a request for proposals to both organizations per commissioners’ direction. The contract is worth $40,000 — an amount that commissioners set aside in the 2026 budget specifically for eviction prevention. KLS and KHD applied separately, and staff put forth KLS for the contract Wednesday.
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Commission Chair Shannon Reid acknowledged that the commission approved the RFP process in April, but she worried it ultimately pitted two community partners against each other.
“I think what I’m stuck on, maybe, is how we have created a competitive nature in this space that I frankly don’t love,” she said. “… For me, part of this conversation all along has been about acknowledging the partners that we have in the space, and that there are two key partners in this space.”
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For the past two years, KLS has run a similar eviction defense program in Topeka. They represent many Douglas County residents for cases including but not limited to housing, and have a history of local education efforts. One day a week, a KLS attorney staffs the Douglas County District Court Self-Help Center.
KHD has an Access to Justice Grant awarded by the Kansas judicial branch that already sends them to the weekly county answer docket to speak with any tenants wanting legal advice. The docket is a weekly hearing where tenants who have received an eviction notice can deny claims that a landlord has made in a petition.
Per the organization’s application, KHD currently fully represents 40% of the tenants they meet with, and secure case dismissals 80% of the time, and team members said they could represent more people with additional funding.
Reid asked if the county could work with both partners by splitting the award and working together. Jill Jolicoeur, assistant county administrator, said they hadn’t initially considered it because it could be challenging to split the small amount of funding between two organizations.
Representatives from KHD and KLS said they had already been in talks about how their services might overlap for the course of a pilot.
Sam Allison-Natale, executive director of KHD, said a split award was his first thought. He was concerned about fulfilling KHD’s current grant to provide eviction defense at the county docket if KLS is also present, possibly displacing them.
“Outside of the narrow interests of a single organization, what is best for our clients is to have multiple healthy organizations that are serving them,” Allison-Natale said.
He continued, saying, “I think it is crucial that there be counsel for people regardless of their immigration status, and that will never be possible in a world in which only KLS is a provider.”
KLS can generally only represent documented residents, with specific exceptions for victims of abuse and certain refugee statuses, as it is subject to Legal Services Corporation restrictions. KHD can represent undocumented people.
In early discussions Wednesday, Brynn Blair, managing attorney with KLS, expressed hesitation about jointly running the pilot. She said between the short turnaround for the RFP and the brief, seven-month run of the pilot, the two organizations weren’t confident that they had enough time to flesh out a shared approach.
“It’s not about KLS, it’s not about KHD,” Blair said. “This is about showing the commission that this work is worthwhile. And so we decided that the best way to use the very limited resources under this pilot program is for KLS to dive in headfirst and do what we already know how to do in Topeka.”
County Administrator Sarah Plinsky said it would take more staff time to compile data and coordinate across agencies if they have two partners working together.
“I’m not necessarily particularly pleased with how this whole program development process has happened for all of us,” she said.
Multiple commissioners agreed, saying it had been clunky.
As commissioners labored over the best course of action, Jolicoeur said that a delay in a commission decision on Wednesday could lead to a delay in services. Blair and Allison-Natale agreed that both of their organizations want to prevent that.
“Of course, we both applied for the proposal because that’s what was requested,” Blair said. “It wasn’t proposed as a joint, collaborative approach. We haven’t had much time to talk about the details, but I think we both agree, and both of our organizations agree, that delaying this project is not what the community needs. It’s not what we want. That’s delaying legal services to vulnerable populations. So, if the commission wants to throw us a curve ball and talk about a joint, collaborative approach.”
Throughout the monthslong parade of meetings on eviction defense, Dorsey has said he prefers supporting rental assistance to legal representation. He also thinks the City of Lawrence should back the program instead of the county, although evictions occur in county court.
“I can’t support either of these firms for getting $40,000, because people are being evicted because they don’t have money,” he said Wednesday night. “They can’t pay their rent. Providing them legal services is not going to put money in their pocket to pay rent somewhere else.”
One goal of the pilot program is to track data on outcomes so commissioners can decide if they want to launch a long-term eviction defense program.
Private landlord James Dunn said during public comment that he hopes commissioners consider tenant police calls and disruptive behavior, and how those things intersect with evictions.
Anderson suggested tracking police calls to the residences of tenants in the program. Reid said it’s a slippery slope to start drawing a correlation between police visits and eviction, since there are so many reasons a person could be calling emergency services.
Jolicoeur agreed police visits were outside of the scope of the eviction defense program.
“The goal of this project was to prevent folks losing their housing and to better understand whether or not having access to legal representation would be a meaningful intervention to preventing folks losing their housing,” she said. “So what I understand of the direction that the commission has given to us for this project, it doesn’t feel related to me.”
She highlighted, instead, multiple events the county has hosted to engage landlords. The next one will be at 11 a.m. Friday, May 22 at Flory Meeting Hall at the county fairgrounds, 2120 Harper St.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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