Douglas County commissioners delay implementing tenant right to counsel, requesting more information

Douglas County commissioners have requested that staff complete more research over the next month or two toward implementing tenant right to counsel, though dozens of advocates called for a vote to launch a program this month.

The city and county strategic plan to end chronic homelessness, approved in March 2024, includes a goal of establishing “the tenant’s right to legal representation in Douglas County.”

During the Sept. 3 commission meeting, members of local renter-led advocacy group Lawrence Tenants presented an ordinance they drafted in collaboration with experts and community leaders to establish full legal representation for all tenants facing eviction from filing to resolution, regardless of income. The suggested ordinance would also establish a tenant-led steering committee to oversee the program.

Various community partners, including Lawrence Tenants, joined a county work group on TRTC following the publication of the plan. Vince Munoz of Lawrence Tenants said the group aimed to research many of the questions currently being posed by county staff and commissioners and ultimately draft an ordinance. However, the work group was discontinued, and more than 18 months later, county staff and commissioners have not taken concrete action on instituting a TRTC ordinance or program.

A majority of commissioners expressed an interest in exploring and potentially implementing a TRTC program. There have been lingering questions about specifics such as the breadth of implementation, possible community partners, budgetary estimates and more, as laid out in the agenda materials.

In the agenda materials for Wednesday’s meeting, county staff members asked if the program should be “means-tested,” or only available to certain tenants based on their income relative to the federal poverty line. Commissioners Patrick Kelly, Erica Anderson and Shannon Reid agreed that they did not want a TRTC program to have eligibility requirements.

“​​If we’re having any conversations around the federal poverty level, I’m not interested in having a limit,” Anderson said. “I think, if you have had any sort of an eviction, and if you’ve lost your job — all of us are one paycheck away, and anyone can fall into that trap. And so I would not want us to limit ourselves and to allow anyone to fall into that.”

Reid also pointed out that Kansas has an aggressive and rapid eviction process, and means testing would add an unnecessary administrative burden and time to an already demanding process. Kelly said he felt comfortable not limiting the program as he felt the numbers could be manageable, considering there were 581 eviction proceedings in 2024.

“​Many of the communities who have started a tenant right to counsel program with some types of means testing or limited in some way or another, have later changed that and they have expanded it to be a fully accessible program to anybody facing an eviction in that community,” Reid added. “I think that’s what should be the qualifying factor for a lot of the reasons that we heard in public comment and also on an administrative burden level. It doesn’t make sense to me to add any more work to an already very aggressive and time-limited process.”

Commissioner Gene Dorsey challenged whether the county was the appropriate level for a TRTC ordinance to be passed.

Reid said that although cities and municipalities have often been the governing bodies to pass TRTC in other communities, their eviction courts were typically a function of municipal government. In Douglas County, evictions take place in District Court, meaning that TRTC lands squarely in the county’s purview. That said, commissioners agreed that they could partner with the cities within the county, as well as other counties within Kansas, to press forward on this right for renters. 

Commissioners also wanted to explore full options for funding TRTC. The homelessness strategic plan was passed without a funding model, according to County Administrator Sarah Plinsky, but $40,000 was set aside in the 2026 budget for evictions, which could be funneled to TRTC. Plinsky also said the commission could source grants for the program.

During public comment, Munoz suggested that the $40,000 could be given to Kansas Holistic Defenders to increase their representation capacity. KHD already has a service agreement with the county to provide misdemeanor defense for people who can’t afford attorneys, which Plinsky said could be revised to include defense in eviction cases. Munoz also proposed dipping into the general fund to supplement the $40,000 as needed before the program could be fully funded through the county’s 2027 budget process.

There was debate among commissioners as to whether TRTC should be codified in county code or simply implemented as a funded program. There is nothing legally preventing the county from codifying an ordinance, nor would they face legal ramifications if they are unable to provide legal services to everyone facing eviction due to budget concerns. At one point, Reid suggested that TRTC might function better as a resolution than county code.

Others argued that providing for TRTC in policy could offer a measure of accountability and an on-paper commitment to tenant rights. Cassandra Barrett of Lawrence Tenants spoke in favor of placing TRTC in county code during public comment.

“That code should ensure that every tenant in this county has full legal representation in the case of an eviction, to ensure that we see the significant lasting benefits of cost savings and positive health outcomes and housing stability that we’ve discussed in this space previously,” they said. “Tenants should have a head seat at the table when developing and administering this program. The code should establish a permanent tenant-run oversight committee from the systemic review of tenant right to council programs that was previously presented to this body … Such a tenant committee ensures that the county is actually meeting our tenant needs and code and not just implementing a program in name only.”

Following public comment, Commissioners Karen Willey and Dorsey suggested that the commission should aim to get more viewpoints from “mom and pop” landlords in Lawrence.

Reid argued that there has been an abundance of evidence proving the efficacy of TRTC programs in reducing evictions and thus homelessness. As a single-property landlord herself, Reid said that TRTC does not allow tenants to avoid paying rent. Rather, it focuses on providing equal rights to tenants with no negative impact to landlords who are fulfilling their responsibilities as property owners.

“And so there is nothing, in my opinion, that can be reasonably argued as a negative impact for any property owner or landlord,” Reid said. “… It’s not about taking away rights or impeding their rights at all. It’s just about providing a right to people who fundamentally don’t have as many of them in Kansas state law.”

By the end of the meeting, Reid, Kelly and Anderson had expressed staunch support for a TRTC program that would service all tenants facing an eviction.

Willey wanted to explore additional programs and options, but was interested to continue conversations. Dorsey wanted to hear more from community partners. Although Reid initially found code to be less pressing that program implementation, she said she felt the commission should fully investigate the community’s pleas for codified policy.

Many community members who spoke pushed for the commission to approve an ordinance and program during their Oct. 22 meeting. Plinsky said it would possibly take between 30 and 45 days to produce a staff report on the commissioners’ questions regarding policy and program implementation.

Many meeting attendees told commissioners that while they wait, people continue to face eviction notices.

“I’m a public policy professional,” speaker Anna Bailey said. “I understand that the details matter, but in the meantime, people are getting eviction notices and they’re facing it alone. You’ve already heard stories today about what that looks like and feels like. The research about the impact of tenant right to counsel is compelling. We don’t need more studies, we don’t need more reports, we need to get to action.”

The full commission meeting will be available to watch here.

Read more coverage on past TRTC conversations here.

Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.

Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.

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