
City of Lawrence to pause overflow winter shelters for now
An overnight shelter space that opened Saturday evening to ensure folks would have a warm place to sleep is now closed “until the need arises again.”
An overnight shelter space that opened Saturday evening to ensure folks would have a warm place to sleep is now closed “until the need arises again.”
The city is in desperate need of help from volunteers to keep winter emergency shelters open amid extreme cold.
Many of the people who previously lived behind the Amtrak station in East Lawrence did not anticipate that they’d have to leave the property where they recently moved within two months.
The Lawrence Community Shelter is planning to randomly assign two unhoused people night by night to sleep inside each of the 24 Pallet shelters — tiny cabins — to be built behind the main shelter.
Questions have surfaced about the city’s policy to prioritize Douglas County residents with homelessness services — among them, how does someone without an address prove they live here? Here’s more about the policy, its purpose and how it’s played out over the last few months.
The local homeless response team is asking churches and organizations to offer people a warm place to sleep this winter, rather than opening community buildings that have been used in the past.
In response to the latest point-in-time count of people experiencing homelessness in Douglas County, the City of Lawrence says employees are making individual connections with people, leading to “powerful milestones of impact.”
Following an update on the city’s homelessness programs, many Lawrence community members who are living outside and advocates told city commissioners Tuesday that the city has broken their trust.
The City of Lawrence is launching its new homeless solutions division, and Misty Bosch-Hastings, who has served as homeless programs coordinator for the city since summer, will serve as its director.
Lawrence community members helped around the clock during the recent extreme cold snap, and advocates say there is no doubt that their efforts saved people’s lives.
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