‘Housing is not an afterthought’: KC must address homeless, affordable housing crises
Since February, unhoused Kansas Citians have stationed themselves on city-owned land downtown and near Southwest Trafficway and Westport Road as a form of protest. So far, the city has not shut down the camps, and they’ve been right not to, since forcibly removing people and their belongings from outdoor enclaves puts already vulnerable people at risk.
“That’s violence,” says community activist Nellie Ann McCool. “Displacement is traumatizing. If we can find a way to allow them to say put, that’s progress.”
But doing no harm is not solving the underlying problem, either.
At City Hall, tents and other makeshift units used for shelter fill the lawn near East 12th and Oak streets. Trash cans overflowed with debris before downtown ambassadors cleaned the pile-up. And more than 170 homeless camps exist in the city, Mayor Quinton Lucas said.
Will city leaders learn from past mistakes and invest in low-income housing and other services for those in need? The work will be difficult. But as Lucas said, “housing is not an afterthought.” The mayor, who was himself homeless for stretches as a child, will have to make sure of that.
Lucas and others from City Hall said all the right things during a press conference Thursday to announce several programs aimed at reducing the homeless population. Now the full City Council should approve plans for the city’s first department of housing and fully support the Office of the Tenant Advocate.
On Wednesday, the City Council’s Finance, Governance, and Public Safety Committee will discuss an ordinance that would establish a new Housing Department. The tenant advocate office was approved Thursday as part of the city’s 2021-22 $1.73 billion budget package. More than $820,000 in federal funds was used to supplement the $930,000 fund, according to Tara Raghuveer of KC Tenants, a housing advocacy group.
The city plans to renovate derelict city-owned property, and turn it into housing. The tenant advocate office will administer the city’s Tenants Bill of Rights ordinance that went into effect last year. It will educate tenants about their rights, investigate complaints against property owners and landlords, provide case support and enforce tenant rights. Whoever fills the spot, it’s imperative that the candidate has experienced navigating the tough terrain of complex housing laws, and have empathy for working-class and poor people.
Also on Thursday, John Wood, Neighborhoods and Housing Services Director, announced that the Land Bank of Kansas City has issued a request for proposals seeking non-profit organizations to renovate land bank structures to offer families and people who are unhoused or at risk of becoming homeless a safe place to live.
Public meetings with neighborhood leaders will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. April 1 in the city’s Third, Fourth, and Fifth Council Districts, where the blighted properties are located.
After Scott “Sixx” Eicke, a 41-year-old homeless man, died from exposure in January in the extreme cold, the city opened Bartle Hall as a temporary warming center.
Allocating nearly $1 million to establish a tenant advocate shows that city leaders want to deal with this persistent problem in a more substantive way. Before COVID-19, we said that creating more affordable housing should be at the top of the city’s agenda. And after pandemic-related stresses of the last year, that’s truer than ever.