rental housing

At the risk of eviction, tenants at Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers launched a coordinated rent strike over what they say are poor conditions and rising prices. They're recruiting more residents to join, and pushing for help from federal housing authorities.

Tenants at two apartment complexes in the Kansas City area are now withholding rent payments, in the city’s first rent strike since 1980. Rent strikes are illegal in Missouri, but residents say it's worth the risk, after dealing with deteriorating living conditions and a lack of maintenance.

Tenants in Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers have dealt with deteriorating living conditions that have gone unaddressed for years. With no commitments from their landlords, the two tenant unions voted to begin withholding their rent this month.

Many of the people in Kansas who are homeless do have an income, but housing is simply too expensive to afford a place to live. Plus: Missouri law doesn't clearly IVF, so what's the risk of the procedure being outlawed?

KC Tenants announced this week that it is a founding local of the Tenant Union Federation, a national union of unions that aims to organize for renter protections at the federal level.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based tenants rights advocacy group joined other tenants unions in Illinois, Connecticut, Kentucky and Montana to form the Tenant Union Federation. TUF hopes to create more effective organizing practices among tenants nationwide and push for federally regulated rent control.

Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at Brookings Metro, says that changes to zoning laws and more action at the state and federal level could help address Kansas City's housing problems. Schuetz will speak at the Kansas City Public Library this coming Wednesday.

The legislation applies to outages longer than 12 hours. Another measure directs the city manager to create an emergency response plan for life-threatening tenant conditions.

As Kansas City experiences hotter summers, and after senior tenants in a Midtown apartment building went without air conditioning last month, some local officials want to pass more protections for renters during extreme heat.

New federal rules will adjust Section 8 subsidies so that Kansas City families can gain access to neighborhoods they've been essentially shut out of, including downtown neighborhoods like Quality Hill and midtown neighborhoods like Hyde Park.

The Kansas City housing market is tight. Lower-interest mortgages signed during the pandemic discourage homeowners from moving on and taking on higher rates, and new construction isn't keeping up with the demand.

In Kansas City's increasingly tight housing market, large investors continue to buy up homes in the area and convert them into rental properties. It forces prospective local homebuyers to compete against out-of-state corporations.