Douglas County commission to weigh $700,000 Bert Nash funding request

Douglas County commissioners will decide whether to backstop Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s Treatment and Recovery Center with as much as $700,000, a one-time request that could help keep crisis-care services moving while Medicaid and other revenue streams come in lower than planned. If the county trims the ask or puts it off, the strain would fall on the center’s mobile crisis work and the wider crisis system the county relies on, including a Mobile Response Team projected to lose $1 million in 2026. County staff say the money could come from the $1 million set aside during 2026 budget talks for crisis-system contingency funding.

The commission is scheduled to take up the request at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 20, at the Douglas County Courthouse, and the agenda says public comment will be heard on each regular item. Bert Nash first approached commissioners in December 2025 asking for $1 million for TRC operations, but the county held off pending an external review of the facility, and that review is still underway. The revised request now tops out at $700,000, and Bert Nash has said it hopes that will be the last supplemental TRC ask for 2027, though that depends on Medicaid reimbursement and future Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services funding.

That state funding is not minor. Bert Nash says KDADS provides about $3.1 million a year to the TRC, and the latest request is tied in part to lower expected revenue from Medicaid and other sources. The county is being asked to stabilize an existing crisis-care hub, not launch a new program, at a time when the center says the system is carrying more risk than it can absorb on its own.

The agenda also includes a HUD FY 2025 Continuum of Care grant agreement for permanent supportive housing for 12 households, a concrete test of whether housing dollars can still move after Bert Nash’s separate project in Lawrence stalled. In March, the Affordable Housing Advisory Board voted 4-1 to recommend clawing back $558,000 after Bert Nash said it could not move forward with a planned 24-unit supportive-housing project for people experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness at 530 Rockledge Road and 2222 W. Sixth St. Bert Nash said it had already spent a little more than 90% of those city funds on design work and an environmental review.

The back-to-back housing and crisis-care items land after more than a year of financial strain at Bert Nash. In May 2025, the center announced staff cuts and salary reductions after declaring financial exigency, and employees later told county commissioners the crisis reflected management problems and harmed frontline services. Wednesday’s vote will show whether county leaders are willing to fund short-term stability at the TRC while the external review continues and the separate housing effort is reshaped around whatever resources remain.