Federal appeals court says Shawnee’s controversial co-living ban can stay put
Shawnee’s controversial limit on how many unrelated people can live together can remain in place thanks to a federal appeals court ruling issued this week.
Often referred to as the “co-living ban,” the Johnson County city adopted the ordinance in 2022, prohibiting more than three unrelated people from living together in a single residence.
More people can live together only if they are blood relatives or related by marriage, adoption or guardianship. The ordinance says if one resident is not related to anyone in their household, then the entire household is considered unrelated.
The ordinance was met with widespread opposition from residents as the costs of living across Johnson County continue to climb and many people opt to have roommates to offset some costs.
It eventually led to the lawsuit filed in 2023 by a Prairie Village-based property management company, HomeRoom — which owns two rental properties in Shawnee — and Val French, a resident whose living situation quickly became illegal under the new rules.
“Both the French family and HomeRoom are disappointed in the ruling, which relies on outdated case law and failed to meaningfully address our arguments,” said David Deerson, an attorney representing both parties. “Not only do co-residence bans contribute to the national housing shortage by making it illegal to share space and fill bedrooms, they also interfere with deeply personal choices about how a person chooses to structure their life and home-environment.”
City spokesperson Doug Donahoo said in an email that the city doesn’t have a statement regarding the court’s decision.
Deerson said that they plan on petitioning the case to the U.S. Supreme Court for review.
Some residents and advocates said they hope that the City Council — which saw new members take seats on the dais that are friendlier to a variety of housing options — would take up the issue to change the ordinance. Donahoo told The Star that no conversations have happened “to his knowledge.”
The lawsuit
At the time the ordinance passed, City Council members argued that it aimed to crack down on arrangements where co-living turned into a commercial enterprise, with homeowners collecting rent for people staying in rooms in their house as if their single-family homes were apartments.
Prior to the city’s new rule, HomeRoom opened the two homes for rent to tenants as part of its effort to provide “low-cost housing searches for those looking for co-living situations,” according to the appeals court ruling.
French, a resident, shared her home with her husband, two adult sons and a son’s girlfriend. Because the girlfriend was not related to them, the living arrangement was no longer legal under the ordinance.
The 2023 lawsuit claimed that the city’s ordinance is discriminatory and violates residents’ constitutional rights to intimate association and equal protection by “regulating their household composition.”
“They also claimed the Ordinance ‘creates a facially discriminatory classification’ by distinguishing between those who are ‘related to all members of their household’ and those who are ‘not so related to all members of their household,’” the ruling stated.
But the appeals court wasn’t convinced, agreeing with a federal judge ruling that states that HomeRoom as a corporate entity doesn’t have the same protected rights of intimate association.
The appeals court dismissed French’s constitutional claims as well, stating that the ordinance does not violate her rights.
Call to action
Lisa Larson-Bunnell said the ordinance changes would’ve been an uphill legal battle, but she hopes change will come in the future. Larson-Bunnell works as an attorney and used to represent Ward 3 in Shawnee from 2017 until 2021. The ordinance was adopted when she was no longer on the dais.
“It’s the only time I went back to say they were making a mistake and they needed to reverse course on this,” she said. “My biggest concern about this is an incredible intrusion on people living their lives. We’ve let the city into our homes, our rooms. … There were other ways this could have been addressed.”
Now a Ward 4 resident, she said that she’s approached her local representatives with her concerns and requested for Shawnee to look at the rule again.
“Now that it’s at a point where Court of Appeals decision happened, I think it’s prime to be taken up,” she said
Shawnee resident Alex Welch Blattner said she was very disappointed to see the rule stay in place, calling it a “huge government overreach.”
“It’s just frustrating because they are trying to define what a family is and making things harder for working class people,” said Welch Blattner, who’s also the founder of Say Yes Shawnee — a community organization that advocates for diverse housing options and inclusivity in the Johnson County city.
“The main people who have roommates are working class people. Housing prices are sky high and we’re going to tell people that you can’t split the rent with a couple friends,” she said.
Like Larson-Bunnell, Welch Blattner is hopeful for change.
“I would like to say this City Council is more friendly to working class people,” she said. “That’s my hope in the future, even if it’s constitutional, let’s get rid of it and going back to making sure housing is safe rather than limit the number of people.”
