Kansas City Council will vote this week on an ordinance that would ban discrimination against tenants who use Housing Choice Vouchers, known as Section 8.
According to the Poverty & Race Research Action Council, 17 states and 85 cities have banned source of income discrimination, which refers to the practice of landlords refusing to accept Housing Choice Vouchers, since 2022.
The citywide tenants union, KC Tenants, worked with Mayor Quinton Lucas to draft the legislation. The group says banning source of income discrimination is the first step to providing affordable housing for working-class tenants.
“We're talking about folks who can pay the rent, they just get that money from someplace different than traditional avenues,” KC Tenants leader Brandon Henderson told KCUR's Up To Date.
The legislation would also make it illegal for landlords to categorically refuse prospective tenants based solely on credit score, prior eviction history, convictions and arrests.
Stacey Johnson-Cosby, local realtor and president of the KC Regional Housing Alliance, said this law would force landlords to do business with the federal government.
“Many times what we find is there are administrative burdens that come with the red tape that comes with doing business with a government entity,” she said. “It's a choice and a risk level that the owner of the property has the choice to make.”
If the ordinance advances out of committee, city council could vote on it as early as Thur., Dec. 14.
- Brandon Henderson, leader with KC Tenants
- Stacey Johnson-Cosby, local realtor and the president of the KC Regional Housing Alliance
- Edwin Lowndes, executive director of the Housing Authority of Kansas City, Missouri
