RESOLUTION NO. 260454
title
Sponsor: Councilmember Melissa Patterson Hazley
RESOLUTION - Directing the City Manager to evaluate City housing programs and policies to ensure they do not unintentionally exacerbate the concentration of poverty and to recommend strategies that promote diverse housing access, neighborhood stability, and balanced economic development investment throughout Kansas City; and report back to the City Council within 90 days.
body
WHEREAS, the City of Kansas City has launched the Housing Gateway Program to help connect individuals experiencing homelessness with immediate housing and supportive services; and
WHEREAS, the City has established the Housing Trust Fund to support the creation and preservation of affordable and deeply affordable housing; and
WHEREAS, Kansas City continues to face a significant shortage of affordable housing, with an estimated need for approximately 64,000 units; and
WHEREAS, communities such as the Third District continue to experience the effects of historic disinvestment, depressed housing stock, aging infrastructure, redlining, discriminatory lending and appraisal practices, urban renewal, highway construction, and other public and private decisions that destabilized neighborhoods and limited generational wealth-building; and
WHEREAS, the construction of United States Highway 71 and other large-scale infrastructure projects contributed to displacement, neighborhood disruption, and long-term barriers to reinvestment in many East Side communities; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has recognized that living in areas of highly concentrated poverty limits opportunity, mobility, economic potential, and social cohesion; and
WHEREAS, concentrated poverty harms school performance, public health, public safety, life expectancy, economic mobility, housing stability, and overall quality of life; and
WHEREAS, even well-intended housing policies can produce unintended consequences when housing resources, deeply affordable units, or emergency placements are concentrated primarily in neighborhoods already experiencing high poverty and historic disinvestment; and
WHEREAS, the Brookings Institute recommends policy that diversifies housing types and to monitor and modify policy that increases the concentration of poverty geographically as a strategy for overall community improvement;
WHEREAS, Kansas City must address immediate housing needs while also ensuring that City housing policy promotes long-term neighborhood stability, mixed-income opportunities, and equitable housing access across all Council districts; NOW, THEREFORE,
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF KANSAS CITY:
Section 1. That the Council declares its intent that City housing programs be implemented in a manner that supports housing stability while avoiding the further concentration of poverty in historically under-resourced neighborhoods.
Section 2. That the City Manager is directed to review City housing programs, including the Housing Gateway Program, Housing Trust Fund investments, and other City-supported housing initiatives, to identify opportunities to promote equitable housing access, neighborhood stability, and balanced investment throughout Kansas City.
Section 3. That the City Manager shall report back to the City Council within 90 days with statistics related to affordable and deeply affordable housing development and availability (rental) patterns, and recommendations; such recommendations shall include strategies to interrupt the cycle of the concentration of poverty.
end
______________________________________________________