A Lawrence board voted 4-1 Thursday night to recommend that the city divvy up affordable housing trust funds across three developments and four community programs.
The Affordable Housing Advisory Board had $700,000 to allocate for the 2027 funding cycle.
The largest chunk of money, $275,000, will go to a collaborative project between Lawrence’s Tenants to Homeowners and Topeka’s SENT Inc. called Holcom Homes.
The proposal was modeled off a community SENT has already built in Topeka. It would bring 44 family homes, many with three or more bedrooms, to Lawrence.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Board members Monte Soukup, Matthew Pauly, Mark Hubler and Barry McMurphy voted in favor of the allocation plan.
Chair Mariel Ferreiro voted against it. She wanted to decrease funding for another project that met fewer of the board’s criteria in favor of Holcom Homes, to edge the applicants closer to their $350,000 ask.
AHAB members annually consider applications, typically from developers and local nonprofit agencies, seeking a portion of the city’s affordable housing trust funds to help pay for projects. The funds come from a city sales tax, which voters in November 2024 doubled to also support homelessness initiatives.
The Lawrence City Commission will have the final say on the recommendations during a future meeting.
How do you quantify affordability?
The term “affordable” may seem subjective, but it’s defined by numbers in this context.
AMI is the area median income, a value set each year by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, used to determine someone’s eligibility for affordable housing.
For fiscal year 2026, the AMI for a household of one in Lawrence is $77,312, and for a household of four, $110,400. 80% of the AMI would equate to an annual income of $61,850 for a household of one, and 50% of the AMI would equate to $38,650. For a household of four, 80% of the AMI would equate to $88,300 and 50% would be $55,200.
According to the city, affordable rental housing units should only take 30% of the monthly gross income of a household that is earning up to 60% of AMI. Homeownership should also only take 30% of the monthly gross income of a household that is earning up to 120% of AMI.
Lea Roselyn, the city’s director of affordable housing, tasked the board with hewing to city priorities for affordability.
She said the board has trended toward getting as many units on the ground as possible in the past, sometimes to its detriment.
“We’ve really stalled on our other housing goals for single-family detached for homeownership units, for deeply subsidized units, for seniors and people with disabilities on fixed income — even at the same time that we said those are our priorities and adopted city plans,” she said.
Funded projects
Here are the projects that AHAB voted to fund for 2027, broken down by developments and programs.
Developments
• $275,000 to Tenants to Homeowners and SENT Inc. for Holcom Homes: The trust fund money will go to 24 family homes in the Holcom Homes development at 2500 W. 25th St. That breaks down to 12 detached single-family homes and 12 rowhouse units.
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
Low-Income Housing Tax Credits from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation will support an additional 20 two-bedroom units for seniors, 10 duplexes and a community building within the project.
“There is a combination of renter and homeownership opportunity in this, and … I would be incredibly sad to see this community not take advantage of an opportunity,” Ferreiro said.
Johnathan Sublet, founder and executive director of SENT, told the board during an Oct. 8 meeting that he believes in mixed-income housing.
“A city reveals its priorities through who can afford to stay,” he said. “Can the people who teach our kids, the young professional who’s just graduating college, families putting down roots, and the senior citizens … find a place here.”
• $100,000 to Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church for Hope Project 2: Ninth Street Missionary Baptist Church will replace an existing fourplex with six units, including two ADA-accessible units. The fourplex is currently at 913 Tennessee St.
Buhler said that’s the first time he’s seen a project take units away.
Soukup said they’re removing “the bad product” to still provide beds.
Roselyn also said these are units for folks in the 0-30% AMI range, and it’s very difficult to build housing for that population.
“That is going to help a population we absolutely miss when we stay in this 60 to 80% AMI space,” Ferreiro said. “So having six units of that to me is incredibly valuable when it is difficult to find that deeply affordable space with a lot of other projects.”
Lawrence Family Promise houses people in those units while providing social services. The church also owns the land and the building, and is making a long-term commitment to keep those units deeply affordable.
• $80,000 to Flint Hills, LLC for New Hampshire Lofts II: The board opted to fund this project as this amount will give the developers a 10-point leg-up in the scoring matrix to get LIHTC.
This four-story apartment building would have 31 affordable units and six commercial live-work condos at 1041 New Hampshire St., across from the original New Hampshire Lofts.
Ferreiro voted against the board’s allocation proposal because she wanted to see $40,000 of this go to Holcom Homes.
Programs
• $75,000 to the Lawrence Douglas County Housing Authority for the New Horizon Transitional Housing Program: Board members quickly agreed to fund this full request. The program gives rental assistance and case management services to families experiencing homelessness in the county.
• $25,000 to Friends of the Senior Resource Center: This money will go toward support calls from seniors with low incomes who need help with repairs, maintenance and accessibility modifications.
• $75,000 to Habitat for Humanity: Habitat is working on necessary home repairs for low-income households, including work on roofs, windows, heating/cooling systems, plumbing and more. The nonprofit asked for $205,000, but as board members juggled applications, they figured the smaller award could still help some community members.
Not funded
Developments
• 711 New Hampshire from Cohen-Esrey: The developers have applied to the trust fund before and were rejected. Board members felt less inclined to fund the project this round as it already has LIHTC funding.
Ferreiro also mentioned the project came under fire from some community members, as it would take out a downtown parking lot.
Pauly felt the project could do more to address a wide range of vulnerable populations. As it is, all of the housing would be for seniors.
• East Heights from Flint Hills LLC: Soukup said he didn’t like the project, and others agreed. He said the cost per unit was too high compared to the return on investment.
• Locust Street Apartments from John Davis and Paul Werner: McMurphy was set against the project because it is located so close to the railroad tracks in North Lawrence. Although some board members thought it was an interesting project, they were also confused by how many units were affordable versus market-rate based on the application.
Programs
• Lawrence Tenants’ renter education initiative: Pauly felt the application didn’t do enough to specify what the money would go to.
“It is hard to quantify what community engagement looks like, and what we are funding here is the ability to have someone paid to do that,” Ferreiro said.
She pointed out that Lawrence Tenants won their fight for a tenant eviction defense program at the county level, and they’ve recently become a 501(c)3, so funding could set them up for long-term success.
No other board members wanted to fund the program.
Here’s the breakdown of the applicants, their project titles, the amount of funds they requested and the board’s recommended funding:
20261112-AHAB-funding-recommendationsIf local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.
Latest Lawrence news:
Wulfe Wulfemeyer/Lawrence Times
