Lawrence pauses reclaiming $558,000, gives Bert Nash six months to revive housing project

Lawrence city commissioners chose delay over clawback, keeping $558,000 in affordable housing trust money tied to Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center’s stalled supportive housing plan and giving the center six more months to prove the project can still work.

The money had been set aside for land at 530 Rockledge Road and 2222 W. Sixth St. for roughly two dozen permanent supportive housing units for people experiencing homelessness and serious mental illness. Instead of treating the proposal as finished, commissioners unanimously agreed to defer the repayment recommendation and leave the door open for a project that could still add a rare type of housing in Lawrence.

The decision came after the Affordable Housing Advisory Board voted 4-1 on March 12, 2026, to recommend clawing back the funding. Lea Roselyn, the city’s affordable housing administrator, told the board the project had been put on hold indefinitely at the end of 2025 because of financing problems, and Bert Nash CEO Kirsten Watkins had confirmed it would not be moving forward. By the time the matter reached the commission, though, Bert Nash leaders were asking for another chance.

Matthew Herbert told commissioners that the center still had a $2.5 million state grant that could help move the development ahead. Mathew Faulk said Bert Nash had already spent a little more than 90% of the $558,000 on design work and an environmental review, and that an archaeological search of the site had been completed. The center had also invested in stormwater studies and other land work that could still support future construction.

Shannon Oury, chief executive of the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority, said the project mattered because supportive housing remains scarce in the area. She also said the housing authority wanted to keep working to preserve the grant funding, but was not in a position to buy the land and then find the money needed to build the units itself.

Mayor Brad Finkeldei left the room for the agenda item because his wife works for Bert Nash. Vice Mayor Mike Courtney and commissioners Mike Dever, Kristine Polian and Amber Sellers voted to defer the clawback recommendation.

The debate sits inside Douglas County’s broader homelessness strategy. The city-county plan A Place for Everyone, approved by the Douglas County Commission in May 2024, estimates about $267.77 million in five-year needs, including about $28.4 million for supportive housing. Its 2027 targets call for 30 units for chronically homeless people, two for chronically homeless families, 50 units for people age 55 and older, 20 units for people involved in the criminal legal system, 10 units for homeless child-welfare-involved families, and 15 transitional housing units for people with substance use disorder and or mental illness.

The clock is still ticking. Lawrence’s affordable housing sales tax brings in roughly $1 million a year, and voters doubled that tax in November 2024 so it could also support homelessness initiatives. Bert Nash entered 2025 already under strain, projecting a $3 million loss, preparing to cut 6% to 8% of staff positions, and facing rising expenses, revenue shortfalls and losses of grants and other funding sources. The next six months will determine whether the city’s pause becomes a path to supportive housing or another delay in a community still searching for enough places to house its most vulnerable residents.