Commissioners fund Family Promise, reserve $100,000 for Tenants to Homeowners while urging a systemwide care‑coordination plan

Douglas County commissioners on July 16 agreed to shift Family Promise’s $50,000 request to the general fund and to provisionally reserve $100,000 for Tenants to Homeowners in the commissioners’ contingency pending further discussion of care coordination and outcomes.

Why this matters: the moves affect how supportive-housing and homelessness-prevention services are funded and whether those services will be treated as ongoing obligations or time-limited, contingent support while the county refines a systemwide care-coordination approach.

Commissioner Reid argued for creating capacity to support coordinated care rather than funding multiple stopgap efforts. Reid said, “I would be in favor of us moving towards coordination, sooner than later versus funding a stopgap with potentially not getting to the outcomes that we would really want.” Several other commissioners supported funding Family Promise’s $50,000 request and moving New Horizons’ $25,000 to the general fund to consolidate partner funding.

Commissioner Dorsey noted that Family Promise’s request fell below the county’s $80,000 service-agreement threshold and said the organization would likely participate constructively in any contract or reporting process. Staff noted that partners funded from the behavioral health fund are typically on service agreements and emphasized that solvency or contingency allocations are not obligations until a service agreement is executed.

Commissioners asked staff to convene partner organizations involved in supportive housing—Bert Nash, Heartland RADAC, Lawrence Community Shelter, Willow, Family Promise and others—to work through common definitions of supportive-housing case management, agree on performance metrics and clarify which organization should provide different levels of care coordination.

Ending: commissioners placed Tenants to Homeowners’ $100,000 request in contingency pending a fuller discussion of care coordination and directed staff to bring back a clearer proposal and suggested metrics for how supportive housing services should be coordinated and funded.