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Understanding the Kansas City-area rent strike: Tenant rights and other key facts
Nearly 200 tenants launched a rent strike at the start of this month over what they see as intolerable living conditions at two large apartment buildings in Kansas City and Independence. The renters at Quality Hill Towers and Independence Towers are demanding better upkeep, repairs, collectively bargained leases and capping annual rent hikes at 3% […]
Roaches, rust and rot: KC tenant union launches rent strike against federally backed landlords
When you walk into the back entrance of Independence Towers, you’re met with a foyer filled with dust, debris and cobwebs. Two rust-coated elevators loom against the back wall. Peeling paint and caution tape line the dirt-ridden hallways on either side. Diasha White said it wasn’t always like this. She’s lived in the building for […]
How green technology is reshaping what buyers expect from Kansas City’s housing market
Twenty years ago, only the most environmentally minded of homebuyers worried much about solar panels, insulation ratings or the value of a heat pump. Today, all those factors matter in a market where energy bills take on growing importance in homebuyers’ calculations. Green home technologies have become more ordinary, even expected (and sometimes mandated by […]
Kansas City home builders push back on energy efficiency rules, blame them for housing crunch
The Kansas City Council gave homebuilders new rules last year designed to make housing easier on the environment. Those rules told them what kind of windows to install, how well the walls should be insulated and how efficient the heating and air conditioning systems should be. Developers now blame those rules for a construction slowdown […]
2026 World Cup in Kansas City could strain housing market and displace homeless people
The 2026 World Cup will squeeze Kansas City’s already tight housing market in ways that could make shelter particularly scarce for homeless people. Many thousands of soccer fans flocking to the region will need places to stay. But some housing experts say that the World Cup’s short-term impact on the housing market could prod the […]
Neighborhood blocks a low-barrier shelter some see as key to solving homelessness in KC
Ken Simard mainly slept under the Blue Parkway bridge near railroad tracks along Brighton Avenue for the seven years he was homeless, numbing himself with meth and weed. “If it were not for the drugs that I did, I would have been suicidal,” he said. “I would do anything to take my mind and put […]
KC police jump-started missing persons unit. Now they need to build trust with Black families
T’Montez Hurt had just started working at a Price Chopper in Grain Valley to save money after a semester away from Missouri Western State University. Then in the early hours of Feb. 1, the 19-year-old placed an anxious phone call to his grandmother, Tecona Donald-Sullivan, saying he thought he’d been drugged. The day before he’d […]
New Kansas City housing subsidies set by ZIP code could avoid segregating renters
For generations, federal housing subsidies have provided a lifeline to families struggling to afford rent. But the maximum amount families got for rent stayed the same regardless of which neighborhood best suited their needs — effectively segregating them into low-income areas. Come this fall, the rent cap for a standard apartment will vary from one […]
Royals say new stadium won’t hurt school revenue, but silent on libraries, mental health services
The Royals, vying for support weeks before voters will decide whether to promise them decades of tax money, are finalizing terms to give Kansas City Public Schools money to offset the loss of property taxes. The team’s plans for a stadium and entertainment district in the East Crossroads would swallow up six blocks of real […]
Construction unions back the Royals stadium while low-wage workers demand more
Kansas City construction worker unions find many things to like about extending the 3/8-cent sales tax to build a new Royals stadium and maintain Arrowhead Stadium — such as new jobs. But service workers who would fill the jobs in and around a new ballpark in the Crossroads Arts District say they’re being left out. […]
5 companies own 8,000 Kansas City area homes, creating intense competition for residents
Brenna Dwyer was in a race to buy her first home. When she and her sister decided to purchase a house together in 2020, they didn’t realize how steep the competition would be — or who they were up against. “If we would find a house we liked and needed to think about it, by […]
How to help kids traumatized by Kansas City Super Bowl parade mass shooting
For starters, experts suggest, get the kids back into school. Routines matter in the raw aftermath of trauma. Child health experts say the shooting that killed a mother and wounded several children at the close of Kansas City’s celebration of the Chiefs’ latest championship likely left kids traumatized. Whether they were near Union Station or, […]