Mission's ability to help Lawrence limited

The Lawrence Community Shelter is requiring about 60 of its residents to move out by Sept. 1, and the Topeka Rescue Mission is incapable of accommodating that many new people, its executive director, Barry Feaker, said Friday.

It remained unclear Friday where most of those residents would go, though Lawrence shelter board president Thea Perry said alternative living arrangements had been found for about seven of them.

The Lawrence shelter isn't encouraging its residents to go to the Topeka mission "because it sounds like they are experiencing some instability," Perry said.

Feaker said the Topeka mission will provide whatever help it can to assess the needs of the people who will have to move out, and suggested the Topeka mission could accommodate some of those if they have Topeka connections.

"We need to be vigilant about who we would take," Feaker said.

About 125 people currently stay at the Lawrence shelter, which is located at 3655 E. 25th in East Lawrence. That shelter announced Aug. 9 it was cutting its capacity to 65 effective Sept. 1, meaning about 60 people would have to leave.

The move is being made in an effort to stabilize the shelter's finances at a time when it is facing funding challenges.

Feaker said the Lawrence shelter's acting director called him near the end of July to ask if the Topeka mission could accommodate an additional 60 residents, and Feaker replied "no."

The Topeka mission, which has seen an average of 247 residents nightly over the past six months, can house as many as 286 "if everything fits well," Feaker said.

More than 300 people have stayed there at times, though in those situations some had to sleep on the floor, he said.

The Topeka mission also faces a financial crisis. On Aug. 5, it issued an emergency plea to the community asking for donations. The mission said that since the beginning of 2019 it had experienced an average shortfall of about $180,000 a month, amounting to a total debt of more than $1 million, which potentially threatens its existence.

Feaker said Wednesday that donors had since given the mission more than $400,000, which will cover its operating costs through Sept. 30, and that additional donations totaling more than $1.2 million were needed to pay operating expenses through the end of December.

The Lawrence shelter opted not to issue a public plea for donations, Perry said.

"We are adjusting our capacity to meet the level of community support we're receiving," she said. "We feel that living within our means is the financially responsible thing to do."

Residents at the Lawrence shelter are meeting with representatives of Lawrence's Heartland Regional Alcohol and Drug Assessment Center, who are working to help identify alternative living arrangements, Perry said.

She said about seven of the shelter's residents had found new places to stay and were taking steps that included renting an apartment and going to live with relatives in other cities.

Money from a small fund available to help the people who will have to move out was used to help pay the deposit for a resident getting an apartment and pay transportation costs for residents going to live with relatives, Perry said.

She said the Lawrence shelter — which hasn't turned people away in the cold weather months, and sometimes sees as many as 165 residents then — intends to keep its capacity at 65 unless financial support increases in a manner that enables that to change.