Evictions loom for hundreds in Kansas City, but officials delay providing legal help
Despite a warning from a city official that hundreds of Kansas City residents could face eviction by the end of May, the City Council won’t decide until June whether to fund more legal services for low-income tenants.
In the months since the coronavirus forced the closure of businesses across the nation, record numbers of people have sought unemployment benefits. This spring, tenants living check to check have had to scramble to make rent payments.
For weeks, they were shielded from losing their homes by moritoriums or the sheer fact that courthouses were operating in such a limited manner. But now, as businesses and government buildings reopen from COVID-19 closures, tenants whose legal proceedings have been stalled could find themselves facing landlords in court.
Mayor Quinton Lucas’ general counsel, Jane Brown, said Jackson County Circuit Court had resumed landlord-tenant cases and could hear “a couple hundred cases” by the end of May. Because of social-distancing requirements, attorneys who represent tenants for free can’t provide them information outside the courtroom the way they normally do.
“People who are going to be evicted won’t have a chance to get representation if we delay this too much further,” said John Wood, director of the city’s Neighborhoods and Housing Services Department.
In housing cases, tenants and landlords can either come to an agreement or go to trial for eviction. If a tenant loses, the eviction then goes to an enforcement phase. Enforcement of evictions in Jackson County is suspended until June 1.
Clay and Platte county courts said they wouldn’t resume landlord-tenant cases until June.
On Wednesday, a City Council committee was set to consider a $65,000 contract with the Heartland Center for Jobs and Freedom to provide free legal services to low-income tenants facing eviction. It would have funded a third attorney. The city funds two other positions through a contract with Legal Aid of Western Missouri, which passed the council last month.
“The fact of the matter is only 2% of people are receiving representation in eviction court,” said Gina Chiala, the center’s executive director, “and the numbers of people being sued are overwhelming … so we have a lot of work to do on this front and in this crisis, and together we can do more.”
Funding legal assistance for low-income tenants facing eviction was a promise last year when the city passed its first-ever Tenants Bill of Rights.
But despite Brown’s warning, the committee kicked the legislation to the full council without a recommendation. And it did not “advance” it to be heard Thursday. The council won’t meet next week because of Memorial Day, so the issue won’t come back up until June.
In committee, Councilmen Brandon Ellington, 3rd District at-large, and Dan Fowler, 2nd District, repeatedly asked the difference between the services Legal Aid provides and what the Heartland Center could do.
Chiala said her organization had more flexible income requirements, meaning it could serve tenants that Legal Aid cannot. It can also provide services for undocumented immigrants. Chiala said her organization can also do more direct outreach to tenants.
“So we are able to ensure that every single tenant who enters into that courtroom has talked to an attorney and has information about the court process before they go into the courtroom,” Chiala said. Without that help, she said, most tenants will lose their cases and have no opportunity to fight them or negotiate with their landlord.
Fowler and Ellington made it clear they were not ready to vote on the issue, setting up a possible deadlock with Councilman Lee Barnes, 5th District at-large, and Councilwoman Andrea Bough, 6th District at-large. Bough sought to advance the legislation — even without recommendation — to be heard by the full council Thursday, but Fowler said he wouldn’t vote for it.
The committee voted 3-1 to send the legislation to the full council two weeks from now. Ellington voted against the move.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 5:19 PM.
