Protections for renters, landlords rising to a head as eviction bans due to expire
Jenay Manley told the Kansas City Star she wants her rent canceled so she can pay for childcare and avoid losing her job or her home. The strain on both renters and landlords is coming to a head as Jackson County’s eviction moratorium is due to expire June 1. Kansas City Star photo by Jill Toyoshiba.
The protections for renters against evictions in Jackson County are scheduled to expire June 1 — stirring anxiety among renters and landlords as another round of rent payments come due.
Though evictions are still on hold for at least six more days, Kansas City’s housing court has reopened for in-person hearings, and eviction cases are on the docket, the advocate organization KC Tenants noted in its newsletter this week.
Without an extension of the moratorium on evictions, KC Tenants said, vulnerable families and individuals are set to be evicted. The New York Times reported nationwide fear of “an avalanche of evictions.”
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“This is horrific,” KC Tenants’ newsletter said. “The state is ‘open for business,’ but people aren't back to work. Debts have accrued, people are still facing unexpected expenses like childcare and medicines.
Many local landlords are dealing with accruing bills. The industry support organization, Landlords, Inc., of Kansas City, has urged tenants to work with their landlords on making arrangements to make rent payments during joblessness or other economic struggles during the pandemic.
Landlords shared comments in the group’s Facebook page that eviction bans and proposed zero rent plans will cripple many landlords without accompanying relief for the property owners.
“How do they expect the landlords to pay for the mortgages, taxes, insurance, and upkeep for these homes?” one landlord wrote.
Mayor Quinton Lucas participated in a virtual conference call with tenant advocates late last week, expressing dismay that the city is having difficulty drawing on coronavirus relief funds earmarked for housing relief that are under Jackson County control.
“I’ll call a special City Council meeting (this) week because nobody’s going on vacation,” Lucas said, according to KMBC-TV news. If the city can secure the funds, he said, he wants to see a “necessary ordinance to get it out on the street to make sure we’re expanding services to unhoused people.”
The City Council last week did break a deadlock and approve funding for a third attorney to increase the legal aid the city is providing tenants in housing court.