After big affordable housing election win, KC Tenants raises a louder voice
Kansas City won a big victory Tuesday night when voters approved $50 million to increase truly affordable housing in the city. And much of the credit for that success goes to KC Tenants. Since its formation three years ago, the advocacy group has pushed city leaders to make affordable housing a priority, and find funding to create more of it.
Now it is behind an effort to create a first-of-its-kind tenant voting bloc in Kansas City. If KC Tenants’ successes in fighting for tenant rights, tenant unions, renters’ rights to counsel in eviction cases, and highlighting the need for more affordable places to live in the city is any indication of the potential of the group’s impact, we think local leaders should take heed of what’s coming. Clearly, voters are paying attention.
Days before the vote, LaTonya Bowman was out with a group of fellow KC Tenants canvassers, knocking on doors across the city. “It felt good when they opened their doors to have people know who we are,” Bowman said. “We got so many people to say yes.”
The measure passed with nearly 80% of voters saying yes to a no-tax-increase general bond issue that will over time put millions into the city’s 4-year-old housing trust fund to create housing that very low-income residents can afford in neighborhoods where there is great need.
“I think KC Tenants has changed the game in Kansas City in terms of housing,” said Kathleen Pointer, senior policy strategist for Kansas City Public Schools. The district has partnered with the tenant group for years to reduce high eviction rates that interrupt learning for many students who live in low-income households.
The 501(c)(3) nonprofit operates a tenant crisis hotline, goes door to door through neighborhoods and effects policy change by pressuring municipal leaders through protest actions.
Last month, KC Tenants launched KC Tenant Power, a political arm, that will not be bound for IRS rules prohibiting such nonprofit groups from taking sides in campaigns. The goal for this new entity is to develop a voting bloc of renters galvanized by common interests and speaking with a common voice at the polls on issues such as education, public safety, transportation and economic justice.
“Can you imagine a power like that?” Bowman asked. Yes, we can, since nearly half of the more than 206,000 households in Kansas City are renter-occupied. That’s a lot of voters crossing all genders, races, religions and income levels.
Similar organizations exist in California and New York. Tenant PAC played a role in Democrats taking control of the New York State Senate in 2018, and a year later helped win a fight to expand rent control throughout the state.
Yes, Mayor Quinton Lucas and his administration put forth this week’s general bond initiative to boost the city’s housing trust fund. But many make a reasonable case that there might not be a functioning fund in the first place had KC tenants not fought so hard for city officials to create it. And last month, the City Council passed a resolution that KC Tenants helped write, ensuring the $50 million voters approved Tuesday will go into the trust fund.
“I think more people are aware of the staggering costs of rent in Kansas City because of KC Tenants,” said Lora McDonald executive director at MORE2, a Kansas City social justice organization. “We have been sounding alarms for nearly a decade but without the large public presence, it got little public conversation or media attention. I think Kansas City elected officials are more aware that their votes will be scrutinized ... now that KC Tenants is on the scene.”
The group has been a formidable force for housing, albeit their aggressive actions — sit-in protests and rowdy disruptions at municipal meetings — are not to everyone’s liking. But disruption to bring about change is their point.
For the most part though, KC Tenants members haven’t gotten directly involved in political actions such as running for office or raising money to back and promote candidates. That’s what KC Tenants Power has planned. It’s already preparing candidates to run for local offices.
Since its founding, KC Tenants has flexed its we-can-get-things-done muscle. “Before February 2019 nobody knew KC Tenants was a thing, “ said Wilson Vance, the group’s organizing director. “And now we are everywhere.” There is more to come. Municipal elections are right around the corner in 2023.
Legacy civil rights organizations such as Freedom Inc. have championed the downtrodden and gotten people to the polls in Kansas City for decades — but their influence has waned in recent years. If KC Tenant Power is as effective at building its “people’s platform,” creating the massive voting coalition that its parent group envisions, then it’s likely to be a political power capable of influencing the outcome of candidate races, and votes on issues. City leaders would do well to pay close attention to their future asks.
This story was originally published November 10, 2022 at 8:18 AM.