KCPT Housing Town Hall

by

KCPT

• Published on December 20, 2019 • Last modified on January 7, 2020

It’s become an explosive issue. But what have we really done to expand affordable housing in Kansas City?

Two years after KCPT and the Kansas City Library launched an examination of affordable housing in the city, what has changed? For the better? For worse?

Mayor Quinton Lucas, who campaigned on the issue, joins a panel discussion and assessment of where the city now stands — as well as where it might be headed.

Included is a look at opportunity zones and the tax breaks they extend to developers to encourage investment in low income, economically distressed neighborhoods. Are they helping or hurting? Also, what’s the expected impact of reassessment in Jackson County, particularly on renters?

Joining Lucas in the conversation: social activist and KC Tenants Director Tara Raghuveer; Realtor, landlord and Jackson County Board of Equalization member Stacey Johnson-Cosby; Heartland Apartment Association Executive Vice President Sam Alpert; and resident Tiana Caldwell, whose family spent six months in a motel room after being evicted from their home.

Nick Haines moderates the presentation.

This program is made possible in part by the support of AARP Kansas City.

Coming Soon: "Land of Opportunity"

As Franklin D. Roosevelt worked to rebuild the nation after the Great Depression, city governments and local elites have either used or battled federal policies to determine who had access to land ownership, who participated in wealth creation and how neighborhoods developed.

Land of Opportunity takes a look at the Santa Fe neighborhood from the 20th century to the current day. We will explore the beginnings of the neighborhood, the racially restricted covenant it entered, Dr. Dennis Madison Miller’s fight through the courts in order to purchase and move into the neighborhood and current residents’ recollections of this transforming community.