Kansas City considers turning hotel near Grandview into apartments for the homeless
Kansas City is considering purchasing a hotel near the Grandview border to create affordable apartments for those experiencing houselessness.
The building, which would be converted into 99 studio apartments, including kitchenettes and individual bathrooms and showers, would be managed by Kansas City’s Housing Authority.
The hotel, currently an Americas Best Value Inn & Suites at 11801 Blue Ridge Boulevard, has been offered to the city by its owners for $3.2 million. The city is also budgeting about half a million dollars for support services at the complex, which borders a Grandview neighborhood.
Apartments would be accessible for those with disabilities, and all residents would receive wraparound services focused on education, health, employment, financial literacy and budgeting.
Members of the city’s Houseless Task Force said the project will add much-needed affordable housing to the city’s inventory and provide a dignified and affordable solution.
Following an appraisal, a new ordinance will be introduced and heard in committee with opportunity for public testimony before going to council for final approval. Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw, 5th District, said if the plan is approved, it could take at least three or four months to complete.
Last December, the Kansas City Council approved a similar project: conversion of an old Days Inn hotel at 5100 E. Linwood Blvd. to transitional housing. The plan initially allocated $400,000 to create a “Housing Navigation Center,” including wrap-around services through a partnership with Lotus Care House.
The building was repurposed to create 39 rooms for people experiencing houslessness, with an emphasis on those 55 and older, single women, those with medical concerns and the LGBTQ+ community.
Lack of affordable housing
Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, houselessness has been increasingly visible in Kansas City as people lost their jobs, health and livelihoods.
“We knew that folks who had never touched the system before might get pushed a little bit too far and were going to need some housing,” said Josh Henges, Kansas City’s first homelessness prevention coordinator.
Local agencies have estimated there are roughly 2,000 houseless individuals around Kansas City. As fast as they are getting housed, just as many seem to be entering homelessness for the first time.
And very little attainable, affordable housing exists in the city.
Edwin Lowndes, executive director of the city’s housing authority, said the greatest need exists for extremely low-income single people and couples. As of Tuesday, he had 13,500 families on a wait-list for vouchers. About 8,000 were single individuals who couldn’t find a place they can afford.
The two primary programs through the housing authority are public housing and a housing choice voucher program, he said, both of which use federal funds to help cover rent. But the hotel program would stand alone, rather than tied to section 8 requirements, giving more flexibility to who they can help.
At the hotel, tenants will pay what they can afford at or below market rent based on their income. The rest will be subsidized. Utilities will be covered by the city, eliminating another barrier to entry for residents.
Lowndes said those who want to live at the hotel apartments will need to go through a screening process. Leases will include duties and responsibilities to be part of the community. There will also be on-site security 24/7.
But unlike other leases, which allow a landlord to easily evict someone for violating the terms, hotel residents will have opportunities to work with social workers to resolve any issues.
Not an emergency shelter
Henges told the few dozen who gathered for a Tuesday evening community meeting, including members of Grandview’s Crossgates neighborhood, that he understands the frustration and anxiety that can surround the opening of a shelter.
But this isn’t a shelter, he emphasized several times. Rather, it’s an apartment complex which will allow the city to maintain nearly 100 apartments without having to “haggle” with individual property owners.
As with any apartment complex, individuals could choose to live there as a starter home, or permanently.
Marquia Watson, Executive Director of the Greater KC Coalition to End Homelessness, said while emergency shelters act as life-saving intervention, the goal of the hotel conversion is to end people’s homelessness by giving them a longer runway to transition into permanent housing. It also reduces the likelihood that they return to homelessness.
“Housing is what ends homelessness,” she said. “Housing is what created communities.”
Watson said while they’re not targeting a specific demographic for the units, the apartments could be a means for single parents whose children have been taken from them to work towards visiting rights and re-unification once their situation is stabilized.
Several community members, given the chance to offer written comments during the virtual meeting, worried that their property values would decrease. City leaders assured them it wouldn’t.
“Would you want this literally in your back yard?” one person wrote. “Nice neighbors don’t even want a Walmart store near their property.”
Others raised concerns that bus service was inadequate. City leaders said they were working with RideKC to address this.
“This is a great project that I wish was in my neighborhood,” Amanda Wilson, with Local Initiatives Support Corporation, commented. “Much better than the camps that have no services or programs.”
