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According to the director’s reports, the Lawrence Community Shelter has been overright among the guests in the Lawrence Community Shelter compared to the population of Douglas County.
James Chislom, the Executive Director of Shelter, who has now been on the job in about one and a half months, presented the first of the demographic reports to the LCS Board of Directors, in which he estimates to proceed monthly.
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Chiselom had two reports from the month of January: a 221 “night-by-night” guests, or those who stayed at least one night in the shelter; And a more detailed report on demographic data on 45 people participating in the 90-day program with LCS.
Among the 221 guests, who lived at least one night in the Lawrence Community Shelter in January, 120 or 54.3%, known as white; 39, or 17.65%, was identified as black, African or African Americans; 20, or 9%, identified as multinationals; According to the report, and 13, or 5.9%, American Indian, Alaska was recognized as a native or indigenous.
This number is quite different from the population of Douglas County as a whole, including 83.1% white people, 4.8% black people, 4.5% of two or more race and 2.7% American Indian and Alaska natives.
The percentage of guests in the shelter who is black is about 3.7 times the percentage of black people in the population of Douglas County.
Among the participants in the 90-day program, 55.6% was identified as white; 22.22% was identified as black, African or African Americans; According to the second report, 8.9% of multinational or American Indians, Alaska natives or indigenous were identified as indigenous.
The demographic data shows racial and ethnic breakdown of guests involved in the 90-day program at Lawrence Community Shelter during January 2024.
The aim of Thursday’s meeting was not to discuss the data deeply, or to consider the causes or solutions of inequalities, but he served to start that conversation. The report was just a part of an agenda which included a financial audit, accounting report and much more.
A gender demographic report has shown that 148 guests, or 67%, are identified as men; 62, or 28%, recognized as women; And 8 transgender, nonbinary, inquiries or others or many are identified as a gender identity.
Some board members expressed concern about why more women are not asking for shelter in LCS. The city’s homeless solutions division director Misty Bosch-Hastings said that women quoted concerns about safety and lack of only emergency shelter beds of women.
The largest age group of guests – 69, or 31.2% – was between 35 and 44 years of age; 56 guests, or 25.3%, were between 25 and 34 years of age; And 40 guests, or 18.1%, were at the age of 45 to 54 years.
According to the report, ten guests of the night said that they were veterans.
More detailed reports on guests participating in the 90-day program also included data on the disabled.
This showed that 73% of those guests said that they were disabled. Of the 45 guests, 44% stated that they had a physical disability; 20% stated that he had a developmental disability; 24% said he had an old health condition; 48.9% said that he had mental health disorder; Around 13% said that they have alcohol or substance use disorders; According to the report, 2.22% said he had HIV or AIDS.
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Chiselom also updated the board on some policy and process changes that it is implementing.
He said that anyone who comes out of asylum to use drugs or drugs needs to get drugs or alcohol evaluation and go to the Heartland Radac to obtain the recommendations of evaluation.
He said that it was not sitting well with many people in the beginning, but he feels that people are assessing and coming back in shelter.
“We are not just throwing them by saying,” You did this; you can’t come back. “We are saying that you can come back, but you need to address the situation,” said Chisloom.
He said that people eventually understand that if they have limited options for their living conditions and they will threaten stay in shelter to use drugs or drinks, it means that there may be a problem.
He said that shelter is allowing people to be in effect, but are not allowing anyone to use drugs or drinks. Staff members are working on learning dislocation technology, he said.
In addition, Chislom said that the shelter would soon start identifying the guests who would go to the village of Foous, a village of 50 cabin -like structures on the North Michigan Street. He said that he is interviewing people for the job of a village manager this week.
The shelter board meets on the fourth Thursday of the month. Get more information through the website of the shelter, Lawrenseshelter.org/our-Board.
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McKenzie Clarke (she/her), Lawrence Times reporter/founder, McLark (at) Lawrencekstimes (DOT) can be reached com. Read more of his work for the time here. See her staff bio here.
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