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Supportive-housing partners urge county funding for operations and one-time capital during hearings
Summary
Local nonprofits and housing providers outlined supplemental requests for one-time capital and ongoing operations, described reentry-focused placements and transportation needs, and presented early outcome data showing reduced crisis contacts after housing placement.
Supportive-housing providers told Douglas County commissioners on July 6 that additional county funding could sustain operations and expand services targeted at justice-involved people, single parents and other high-need populations.
Jill Jolicker, assistant county administrator, assembled representatives from Tenants to Homeowners (Rebecca Buford), Cardinal Housing Network (Hannah Bolton), Family Promise of Lawrence (Bridal), the Lawrence Douglas County Housing Authority (Galal O'Bade) and Mental Health America of the Heartland (Simon Bessemer) for a panel on supplemental requests.
Hannah Bolton, program director for Cardinal Housing Network, described a recently purchased Baldwin property — "a 5 bedroom, 2 bath home" with three unfinished accessory dwelling units — that the organization envisions using for shared co-op housing for single mothers and children. Bolton said Cardinal acquired that property through an LLC and has raised roughly $45,000 in contributions year to date; she asked county commissioners to consider onetime capital and operational support to hire live-in managers and provide transportation to treatment and services. "We really need to be able to utilize our own transportation to get these women where we're going," Bolton said, citing difficulties in moving people from jail-release to services without a direct transport line.
Family Promise asked for onetime funds to cover capital expenses for projects the nonprofit has completed and for safe temporary family shelter that staff described as closer to transitional supportive housing than emergency shelter. Family Promise clarified that rental income and voucher-offsets were treated as program offsets in their budget documents.
Simon Bessemer and county staff described an early analysis of the flexible housing pool showing crisis contacts for a cohort of 23 individuals dropped from 66 contacts before housing to 42 after housing (a measure combining emergency-department visits and jail stays). Staff said a fuller draft of that crisis-system impact analysis would be circulated later in the week.
Several commissioners pressed partners on sustainability and grant-readiness. Partners said many programs face constraints to accessing state or federal salary funding, noted that some nonprofit budgets show a high share of county funding, and urged a braided funding approach among county, city and nonprofit sources. Mental Health America said county dollars it receives are spent in Douglas County except for a small share used for administrative overhead.
No formal votes or decisions were taken; commissioners asked staff to follow up with clarifying budget pages and AIRs (agenda-item reports) to reconcile where transitional-program funding appears in county spreadsheets.
The commission recessed for a short break and will resume additional hearings later in the morning.
