Housing
Flatland covers stories about affordable housing, evictions and tenant rights in the Kansas City metro and surrounding area.
A Clash of the Way In
Rachel Miskec watches the news each night and worries she’ll see an apartment fire in Kansas City, Kansas. “If something bad happens, I know someone is going to ask us when did you go into [the apartment] last,” said Miskec, the coordinator of the rental license program for the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and…
Part-Time Student, Full-Time Homeless
Washington has an invisible problem: College students face homelessness in some of the biggest numbers anywhere. Michael is 19, transgender, and homeless. As a transgender person of color, Michael embodies some of the most sobering data on who is impacted by homelessness. Most estimates put LGBTQ people at less than 7 percent of the population….
MAC Properties Plans $78M Project to Revive Troost/Armour Intersection
By Kevin Collison A bold redevelopment plan that would transform the forlorn intersection of Armour and Troost into a vibrant hub with hundreds of new apartments and small businesses won approval for tax incentives Thursday. The $78 million Armour Corners Project planned by MAC Properties calls for five new buildings that will add 450 apartments…
Latest River Market Apartment Project Filling Fast
By Kevin Collison Only six months after its opening, the River Market’s latest apartment development, 531 Grand, is already 72 percent leased with its studio units completely gone. The 185-unit development is the first to be built in downtown by Omaha-based Cornerstone Associates. CEO Larry Mazzotta is so pleased, his firm is considering doing another…
Changed Locks: Getting Evicted in Wyandotte
It takes two minutes for the woman in the wheelchair to roll in front of Judge R. Wayne Lawson. It only takes another two minutes for her to be legally evicted. “You have to leave, just not today,” Lawson tells her. The plaintiff’s lawyer asks her to wait for him in the hallway. He still…
How’d We Get This Data? See the Human Side of Records Analysis
44 days. That’s how long it took our research intern to obtain all the eviction information for Wyandotte County. Across that month and a half, Flatland’s Ryan Hennessy spent about six hours a day combing eviction records the only place they were available: on one of three public computers on the first floor of the…
Affordable Housing: The Apartment Fight
When the Kansas City Housing Authority won a coveted $30 million federal grant in 2015 to tear down Chouteau Courts, a low-income housing project east of downtown, and replace it with mixed-income housing, housing advocates were thrilled. But when the Northland was proposed as a location for one of the new properties, area residents took…
Former Union Hill Motel Converted to Apartments
By Kevin Collison A former motel at 29th and Main has been renovated into 96 apartments, many geared toward the high-demand, affordable housing market. The one-time Residence Inn was converted into rental housing by Bob Frye of Union Hill development. It’s offering studio and smaller one-bedroom units from $895- to $995 per month, and two…
NourishKC Celebrates Serving Millionth Meal to the Homeless
By Kevin Collison Eight years after opening in new space at Eighth and The Paseo, NourishKC celebrated serving its millionth meal to the homeless people of downtown. Mayor Sly James recognized their charitable work at an event this week, but also used the occasion to call out the broader issue of homelessness and growing economic…
Innovative Second and Delaware Apartment Project Expects to Resume Work this Summer
(Updated Aug. 16) Jonathan Arnold, the developer of Second and Delaware, told the PIEA board construction is expected to resume in September with completion expected in mid-2020. Rising labor and material costs have pumped up the overall project cost to $71 million. Arnold said the development still is expected to be the world’s largest “passive house…