Three weeks after the Kansas City Council passed an emergency ordinance to fund and execute immediate repairs at the troubled North Lawn apartments, lawmakers on Thursday repealed and replaced it with a new order that could force residents to relocate so the complex’s new owner can complete long-awaited repairs.
The city council’s new ordinance still appropriates $500,000 from the Housing Trust Fund, but outlines that such an agreement would allocate that money to providing relocation assistance to residents.
And where the previous ordinance, from July 23, mandated the city must make the repairs at North Lawn, the new law instead directs City Manager Mario Vasquez to strike an agreement with North Lawn’s new owner to make those repairs.
Tenant union organizers said the action marks a step away from a promise city officials made that repairs would be done without forcing residents to leave their homes.
“This is the city walking back that commitment and completely abdicating all responsibility towards tenants,” said Mary Allison Joseph with the citywide tenants union KC Tenants, which organized North Lawn residents.
And 6th District Council member Johnathan Duncan, who sponsored the prior ordinance, said the new law was a “capitulation” to Vasquez, who expressed concern to Council members that making the city responsible for emergency repairs would become a liability.
“It is a retreat from the city taking on slumlords and holding them accountable by completing emergency repairs that they refuse to do and putting liens on their properties,” Duncan said. “It's a betrayal to the tenants and the tenant union there.”
But, as city leaders discussed in a lengthy session on Thursday, the issues at North Lawn are more widespread than previously understood. A 48-page report sent to KCUR detailing the city’s visits to North Lawn and subsequent inspection reports contain a litany of health and safety violations.
From late June to August 2026 alone, the violations include the accumulation of wastewater, failure of the sewage systems, electrical system deficiencies, disruptions to gas service, limited hot water, public health hazards, and toxic and noxious conditions.
The North Lawn Tenant Union went on rent strike this month, in response to long-neglected and life-threatening issues. Just this summer, residents have gone without hot water and power in the middle of sweltering stretches of heat.
But Vasquez said safety concerns at the complex, on top of worries of the city’s liability in repairing property it does not own, made it so repairs could not continue.
“When a contractor that we rely upon refuses, in essence, to engage out of concern for safety, out of concern for liability, out of concern for our budget, we have to accept that concern, accept that recommendation,” Vasquez said.
Since the building was sold, Vasquez said the new property owner has conducted some cleanup work. Vasquez also said a contractor and city staff were at North Lawn to address electrical system issues this week, but could not complete them because they received threats from someone on the property.
“This is a much bigger problem than it was originally put to us,” said 1st District-at-Large Council member Kevin O’Neill during a Council session. “Now we're dealing with a whole new animal.”
New ownership, same mistrust
The city’s legislative back-and-forth comes the same week that residents learned their buildings have new ownership, further thrusting the community of immigrant families with children, older folks and people with medical needs into uncertainty.
The looming possibility of relocation, even temporary, is one the North Lawn tenants union hoped to avoid, though a clause in the new ordinance says an agreement between the city and the landlord must allow residents a chance to return to their homes.
“That's a lot of moving and it's just unacceptable,” said North Lawn resident Christiana Tamski. “We can't really afford to find somewhere else to go.”
Aside from site visits from city staff, residents at North Lawn apartments say they haven’t seen any repairs completed by the city, a claim Vasquez disputed on Thursday. He said city staff mobilized to specifically address sewage issues.
Still, Tamski said her husband and their roommate have had to take matters into their own hands and unclog a drain in the basement twice. She said the next day, the new landlord pressure washed the basement.
And because their apartment does not have electricity, there’s only one working air conditioning unit.
“My husband has seizures when it gets too hot,” Tamski said. “It's been a rough day.”
A letter to residents identified the Kansas City real estate investment company owned by Shawn Johnson called Vital20 LLC as North Lawn’s new owner. It identified the new property manager as Rubicon Realty, which Johnson also owns. Johnson did not respond to KCUR’s request for comment.
“Our job is to get these buildings fixed and safe with you living in them,” the notice states, specifying that tenants will not be evicted, nor will they have to move.
The letter also states that Rubicon Realty will not collect August rent from residents, and says new management is working on addressing the violations identified by the city, including restoring electrical service, installing smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, cleaning up sewage and wastewater, and securing doors and entryways.
Vasquez told City Council members on Thursday that it would cost at least $6 million to make North Lawn apartments habitable.
Tenants, meanwhile, said they feel like they can't trust new ownership without a meeting and negotiations outlining a collectively-bargained lease agreement.
“What the city and the landlord have done is create a lot of uncertainty that only adds to the anxiety of tenants who have been fending for themselves these last few weeks,” Joseph said.
