Housing

Flatland covers stories about affordable housing, evictions and tenant rights in the Kansas City metro and surrounding area.

The home on 4401 E. Ninth St. used to be on Kansas City's dangerous buildings list until the Lykins Neighborhood Association acquired the property through Missouri's Abandoned Housing Act. It's now being renovated into a livable home.

How One Kansas City Neighborhood Is Transforming Its Dangerous And Abandoned Buildings

In northeast Kansas City, the Lykins Neighborhood Association has used Missouri’s Abandoned Housing Act to reclaim abandoned and dilapidated homes and turn them over to rehabbers for renovation. The results have been promising.

Read More >

Samuel Rodgers Apartment Plan ‘Capstone’ of Paseo Gateway Redevelopment

By Kevin Collison A 62-unit apartment project is in the works for the Samuel D. Rodgers Health Center campus, the final phase of the Paseo Gateway redevelopment initiative that’s added more than 300 residences to the area, many of them affordable. The Samuel Rodgers Health and Wellness Campus project is planned for a five-acre site…

Read More >

Mac Building a Village on Armour

By Kevin Collison Fourteen years after it began redeveloping dozens of historic buildings along Armour into market-rate apartments, Mac Properties is now striving to create a village in the new Midtown neighborhood its created. “The pandemic made it clear how important social connections are,” said Peter Cassel, Mac director of community development. “We wanted to…

Read More >

Developer Wins Incentives for $88M First Phase of Ambitious Freight House Project

(UPDATED: The PIEA board approved a 15-year property tax abatement to assist the residential component of the proposed Freight House Village project and a sales tax exemption on construction materials at its meeting today. Developer Vince Bryant told the board the Freight House Village site currently pays about $45,000 annually in property taxes to the…

Read More >

Westside Townhome Proposal Rec Delayed by Plan Commission

By Kevin Collison A proposal to build nine townhomes on long-vacant property at 29th and Belleview was delayed Tuesday by the City Plan Commission over a procedural glitch and complaints by some neighbors about communication issues. Remez Partnership wants to build six, two-bedroom and three, three-bedroom townhomes on a half-acre lot in the Westside neighborhood…

Read More >
Travis Stull in front of his home in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas. Stull bought his home in April.

Kansas City’s Pandemic Housing Market is Increasingly Pricing Out Millennials

A new study found Kansas City is one of the housing markets where affordability has declined the most

Read More >

Troost Apartment Plan Moving Forward After Incentive Approval

By Kevin Collison Work on twin apartment projects totaling 52 units at the southeast and southwest corners of 27th and Troost is expected to begin in late summer following approval of a tax incentive package Wednesday. The $8 million project is being developed by Exact Partners, the firm which redeveloped the nearby historic Wonder Bread…

Read More >

Work May Begin Late Summer on $50M Westport High Apartment Project

By Kevin Collison The renovation of the historic Westport High School into a 138-unit apartment project could begin by late summer following approval of a sales tax incentive by a city development agency Thursday. The board of the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority unanimously approved a sales tax exemption on construction materials for the $50 million…

Read More >
Westport High School

Work May Begin Late Summer on $50 Million Westport High School Apartments

The renovation of the historic Westport High School into a $50 million, 138-unit apartment project could begin by late summer following approval of a sales tax incentive by a city development agency.

Read More >

Checking Out: Some Say Hotels Aren’t the Key to Sheltering the Unhoused

Efforts to temporarily shelter the unhoused in Kansas City area hotels and motels have faced a variety of challenges.

Read More >

Local Storytelling. Fact-Based Reporting. Trustworthy Sources.

Help support the nonprofit media landscape in Kansas City and provide a platform for underrepresented voices across the region.