Shawnee’s ban on co-living rental homes is exactly what ‘criminalizing poverty’ means
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Shawnee co-living ban
In April, the Shawnee City Council voted 8-0 to ban co-living, becoming among the first Kansas City area municipalities to prevent the practice, which has gained popularity in recent years as rent and home prices have soared. The new ordinance has been under heavy scrutiny.
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Co-living rentals banned in this Johnson County city after unanimous council vote
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Shawnee’s ban on co-living rental homes is exactly what ‘criminalizing poverty’ means
In Palo Alto, California, workers live in the campers and trucks that line some streets, because they can’t afford to buy or rent in one of the priciest communities in the country.
Apparently, Shawnee, Kansas, wants to make sure that no one who can’t afford to live there, and most cannot, lays his or her head there at all.
Maybe a moat would work, with a drawbridge.
A week ago, council members of this exclusive — literally exclusive — Johnson County city unanimously voted to ban “co-living” in rental units, in effect banning roommates.
The new ordinance defines a co-living group as a group of at least four unrelated adults living together. And it applies if just two of those adults are not related.
There are already so many ways in which poverty is criminalized. And now, working people are not even going to be allowed to double up?
“What happens in Shawnee is really consequential for what happens to the rest of the county,” said Kristy Baughman, director of education and planning for United Community Services of Johnson County.
In 2017, her organization received a grant from the Kansas Health Foundation to identify a health equity issue. And “over and over again, what rose to the surface was the cost of housing was the thing that was impacting people’s ability to be healthy.’’
Just live somewhere else? Ideally, your mom’s basement.
Cities around the country are becoming unaffordable, but rather than deal with the serious problem of the lack of affordable housing, it’s easier to go after the social ill of roommates and renters.
Co-living, in places with shared common space and locked bedrooms is popular on the West Coast but obviously upset some in Shawnee, who said that its expansion in Johnson County could lead to such problems as more parking on the street.
At the same council meeting where co-living was banned, members heard a report on a Johnson County housing study that showed that 48% of renters in Shawnee spend more than 30% of their income on housing, compared to 14% of homeowners who spend that much.
The ordinance makes clear that group homes for Kansans with disabilities are still allowed, so thank goodness for that?
Other renters — and seniors trying to find a way to stay in their homes — have been deemed undesirable, though, and that’s a short-sighted shame.
This story was originally published May 2, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Shawnee’s ban on co-living rental homes is exactly what ‘criminalizing poverty’ means."