Douglas County officials present early results from flexible housing pool; data show drop in emergency contacts

Douglas County staff and community partners on June 3 briefed the Board of Douglas County Commissioners on the county—lexible Housing Pool (FHP), a locally funded program intended to house people with high needs who do not qualify for traditional HUD permanent supportive housing.

Kristen, a program presenter, said the county launched the local FHP in March 2025 after a Corporation for Supportive Housing needs assessment found a high number of chronically homeless residents and limited local service capacity. "Flexible housing pools fill the gap that PSH cannot fill because HUD is slow and rigid," Kristen said, explaining that the program pairs local rental subsidies with dedicated support staff and landlord engagement.

The housing authority provides voucher structure and landlord outreach while Mental Health America of the Heartland provides case coordination and housing stabilization services, county staff said. Monica Casares, a service coordinator with the DC Flex program, described efforts to recruit trauma-informed landlords and use master leases when individual landlords decline participation.

Ani Nomula, the county data analyst, presented early outcome analysis for 24 FHP participants. She said 18 of those participants are currently housed and that a subgroup of 10 clients with at least nine months of post-housing data shows meaningful declines in emergency contacts. "Ten out of 18 have 9 plus months of post housing data, and they show an overall reduction of 59% in emergency contacts," Ani said, while noting caveats about sample size and data windows.

Ani told commissioners the analysis drew on HMIS and Lawrence Community Shelter (LCS) records and that some cost estimates (notably up-to-date ambulance/EMS dollar figures) were not available at the time of the presentation. She said she received counts for EMS usage but was awaiting cost figures from fire/EMS to calculate updated dollar savings.

County staff described program scale and budget. Jill (county staff) said the program is funded for 32 households and currently serves 18 people, with six in a placement pipeline. "If I did just straight math on the total funding for the program, and for 32 households, it's $28,781 per household," she said.

Galal (spelled in materials as Golal Obeyed) from the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority clarified a residency rule relevant to program participants, saying LDCHA requires three years of residential history (not strictly rental history) but that master leases can count as one year of residency. He said LDCHA is exploring reducing the requirement to two years and that change could take effect in 2027 if approved.

Speakers flagged program limits and next steps. Presenters said the FHP is not appropriate for people who need institutional nursing-level care because local capacity for that level of service is limited; staff described coordinated paths to connect higher-acuity clients to Medicaid or visiting-nurse partners when possible. Ani and staff also committed to follow up with updated ambulance/fire cost estimates, court data, and further cohort tracking to strengthen cost-benefit analysis and clarify per-client per-month savings.

The work session concluded with commissioners praising the initial outcomes and asking staff to expand the data set and refine cost estimates. The meeting recessed until a 5:30 p.m. business meeting.