Lawrence, Kansas, Uses ArcGIS to Aide in 63 Percent Reduction in Unsheltered Homelessness

In Lawrence, Kansas, the city’s annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count found 142 unsheltered individuals among its population of 100,000 residents. These individuals face extreme seasonal weather, from below-freezing winters to dangerously hot summers. The city’s rapidly rising housing costs—the fastest in the state—leave many residents just one crisis away from losing their housing, increasing the risk of unsheltered living.

City staff recognized the urgency and made unhoused outreach a citywide priority. They turned to geographic information system (GIS) technology to improve coordination, strengthen data collection, and guide resources more effectively.

Specifically, the Homeless Solutions Division needed a more accurate count through a proactive approach that allowed staff to identify unsheltered populations regularly, rather than once a year. The city turned to ArcGIS Online—a secure, scalable, web-based GIS platform—and ArcGIS Pro, a powerful desktop GIS for advanced mapping, analytics, and data management. With ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro, along with other ArcGIS tools, the city efficiently mapped encampments, streamlined outreach to unhoused residents, and delivered housing resources with speed and compassion. These efforts led to a 63 percent reduction in unsheltered living, enhancing community stability.

“Our success is more than a number,” said Misty Bosch-Hastings, director of the Homeless Solutions Division for the City of Lawrence. “It’s nearly 100 of our neighbors no longer sleeping outside, now connected to care and on the path to stability.” 

To reach people living without shelter, the City of Lawrence needed to understand where they were. Many individuals stayed in informal encampments—temporary locations that often shifted over time. These sites became critical touchpoints for outreach teams, serving as entry points for offering care, building trust, and connecting people to housing resources.

When the Homeless Solutions Division first formed, there was no centralized way for staff to collect information on encampments. Other than the well-established locations that had existed for years, staff only knew the locations of unhoused individuals if they reached out to local organizations for assistance or if a community member reported an issue to emergency dispatch.

To improve data collection, Bosch-Hastings launched an online form on the city’s website that the public could use to report campsites. But users often bypassed the map interface or needed to submit a location that didn’t have an address or location name. This made it difficult for staff to respond quickly, as they needed exact coordinates from submissions to share directly with outreach teams so that response could be streamlined.

The city replaced the online form with ArcGIS Survey123, a mobile-friendly GIS survey app. The app required users to select a map location before submitting information, ensuring that each report included verified spatial data. Residents could also search by address using countywide-verified addresses, improving the accuracy of location placement.

“ArcGIS Survey123 allowed us to collect clear, up-to-date information from our community and quickly relay it to a team of professionals who can provide immediate assistance,” said Amy Roust, GIS administrator II.

Encampments can be short-lived, so the homeless response team (HRT) staff needed an alert as soon as a campsite report was submitted so that they could respond to provide resources and services to the individuals before they relocated. The city used Microsoft Power Automate to build an automated process that was tied to the survey and sent real-time alerts to the outreach staff, transforming guesswork into coordinated, community-driven responses. Optionally, the community member who reported the campsite could also request a follow-up from staff via phone or email to confirm that their report had been addressed.

These location-verified reports from the public enabled the team to engage far more effectively and frequently with unhoused individuals. Often, convincing a person to accept help takes several encounters to build trust and relationships. The HRT members became the friendly faces of the city, from offering bottles of water on a hot day to helping a person access the services they needed to find stable housing.

To prepare for the next PIT count, the city used ArcGIS Network Analyst—an extension that enables advanced vehicle routing—to divide the county into zones and create optimized travel routes that included the known encampments. Each PIT count team received a map with a list of places to visit, numbered to ensure that they reached each location using the most efficient path.

This shift in approach made a noticeable difference. According to Bosch-Hastings what had previously taken outreach teams 12–14 hours was completed in just five hours. Having precise locations plotted on the map reduced overlap, improved coordination, and ensured that every area was covered efficiently.

“HRT is doing the very hard work of meeting people where they are and building trust. We are grateful that we can use our skills with ArcGIS products to support their mission and increase efficiencies,” said Roust.

With spatial data centralized in GIS, city staff then used ArcGIS Experience Builder to create a web-based application that allowed outreach teams to track and manage campsite reports, ensuring that every concern was investigated and addressed.

The team also used ArcGIS Experience Builder to create an executive dashboard, to give city leadership real-time updates on unhoused outreach efforts. In a fast-moving environment, quick access to accurate data was essential. The dashboard allowed the team to track weekly progress, shift resources in response to trends, and provide transparent updates to city leadership and residents. It also helped forecast staffing needs, identify where resources were most effective, and provide evidence for grant reporting and future funding proposals, making it a critical tool for both operational and strategic decision-making.

Beyond the Homeless Solutions Division, other departments—including parks, public works, and sanitation—used the data to plan cleanups and monitor high-impact areas. Police and fire department staff accessed it to identify safety concerns, while city leadership used the aggregated statistics to inform policy and budget decisions. Partner agencies also relied on shared data to coordinate services and reduce duplication. The dashboard became a vital tool for operational and strategic thinking.

With the help of ArcGIS technologies, HRT’s efforts paid off significantly. The City of Lawrence achieved one of the most significant reductions in unsheltered homelessness nationwide. According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the city reduced unsheltered homelessness by 63 percent between January 2024 and January 2025.

“This milestone reflects a community-wide effort, featuring strong partnerships across agencies participating in multidisciplinary outreach,” said Bosch-Hastings.

In just 12 months, the city also saw a 30 percent decrease in overall homelessness, dropping from 414 to 290 individuals. This put the city ahead of other major cities. Now the City of Lawrence is on the path toward reaching functional zero, a benchmark to show that the community’s housing capacity is greater than the number of people experiencing homelessness.

ArcGIS played a central role in this transformation. The City of Lawrence used GIS to collect and report data required for various federal programs and funding. For example, it helped the city comply with data standards and reporting requirements from HUD to maintain Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) participation. GIS also fulfilled Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act requirements for tracking how federal relief funds were used for outreach and emergency sheltering efforts. These capabilities not only help keep the City of Lawrence eligible for funding but also increase transparency and credibility with partners such as local nonprofits, other public health agencies in the region, and the public.

In 2025, Bosch-Hastings was recognized as a Douglas County Health Champion for her leadership in driving this coordinated, data-informed approach.

Looking ahead, the city plans to build on its success by replacing its 21-page manual of homelessness resources with an interactive GIS survey. It will include filter options based on each person’s unique needs, ascertained as the HRT is engaging with them. Answers to questions such as “Have you ever served in the military?”, “Do you have a physical or mental health condition?”, or “Do you have pets?”, will generate a custom list of services that the outreach coordinator can quickly implement to get each individual enrolled in services that will move them toward stability. With these innovative approaches, the City of Lawrence is an example of how an organization can leverage GIS to improve the lives of all of the community’s residents.