The Housing Stabilization Collaborative (HSC) exists to support community members in accessing and affording sustainable housing through our rental and utility assistance program, landlord engagement best practices, monthly rental availability list, and partnership with local social service agencies. As a collaborative, we work towards reducing and eliminating housing barriers for renters as well as working with local landlords to provide safe and affordable housing.
OUR STORY
Where It All Began
The Housing Stabilization Collaborative (HSC) began as a shared program between Family Promise of Lawrence and Tenants to Homeowners with the goal of providing emergency rent/utility assistance and light supportive services. This model was successful, and in Fall of 2020, the program was given a million dollars of COVID relief funding to disburse to Douglas County households. The HSC also worked heavily to ensure access to the much larger Kansas rental assistance program, the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance (KERA) program. While Douglas County’s population accounts for 4.2% of Kansas’s population, Douglas County KERA payments accounted for 7.4% of the total payments made to Kansans. The HSC attributes its successes to its highly collaborative process, which includes the efforts of over 15 local agencies.
OUR STORY
Where We Are Now
The success of the HSC and the clear ongoing need for rent/utility assistance led to the creation of the Douglas County, KS Government’s Housing and Human Services Program which now convenes the HSC as we continue to partner with local social service agencies.
We still provide rent/utility assistance and are working to provide more robust and systemic solutions to the housing problems faced by the Douglas County, KS community.
