KC Tenants hasn’t been around long, but they sure have made an impact.
The citywide tenants union fights for safe, accessible and affordable housing and describes itself as led by a "multigenerational, multiracial, anti-racist base of poor and working class tenants in Kansas City."
Recently, the political arm of the group, KC Tenants Power, flexed itsinfluence when four out of the six city council candidates it endorsed were elected.
“I think they have really, really taken the time to listen to people's personal stories. And there is nothing more empowering than that,” Kansas City PBS senior reporter Mary Sanchez said on KCUR’s Up To Date.
Michelle Smirnova, a University of Missouri-Kansas City associate professor of sociology added that anger is an integral part of the group's work.
“We should all be angry that there's a mom raising a one-year-old who is in a house with a ceiling with holes in it, and birds are flying in and the carpet is soaked and covered in black mold," Smirnova said. "KC Tenants is outraged and saying you should be outraged, too."
Smirnova and Sanchez joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss the political rise of KC Tenants and KC Tenants Power.
- Michelle Smirnova, Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Missouri-Kansas City
- Mary Sanchez, Senior Reporter at Kansas City PBS
