Rental housing complaints skyrocket during pandemic, hitting KC's 3rd District hardest
Residents of Gabriel Tower in Kansas City protest housing conditions in June. Facebook photo courtesy KC Tenants
A dramatic rise in rental property complaints shows that many Kansas City families believe the pandemic is confining them in dangerous living conditions.
Calls to the city’s Healthy Homes Rental Inspection Program have more than doubled during the pandemic, and an analysis by LINC shows the highest volume of complaints arose out of the city’s 3rd Council District in east Kansas City.
The numbers are “startling,” said Lora McDonald, the executive director of the Metropolitan Organization for Racial and Economic Equity, in a report by KCUR 89.3. The organization, MORE2, pushed hard to get the city to start the Healthy Homes program.
“I think it's a good thing that people know that the hotline exists and are complaining,” McDonald said.
The number of calls hit 280 in July, a rise of 185% since the start of the pandemic in March when the city received 98 calls. The previous peak month was 158 in September 2019 according to the data from KCUR.
Last July, there were 137 calls.
A LINC analysis found that during the second quarter of 2020, as the number of complaints skyrocketed, 38% of calls came from Kansas City’s 3rd City Council District. Among the rest of the six districts, the 5th had 22% of the calls, the 4th had 19%, the 6th had 13%, the 1st had 4% and the 2nd had 3%.
The 3rd and 5th districts cover older sections of East Kansas City, where the housing stock is older and there are larger concentrations of low-income families.
“It has a level of disinvestment,” LINC Deputy Director Brent Schondelmeyer told KCUR. He sees the pandemic accelerating the conversation about access to affordable and safe living.
Kansas City’s City Council districts
“In many ways, you're paying 30, 35, 40 percent of your income,” Schondelmeyer said. “And if you aren't getting your part of what is a safe habitable space, then, you know, something really needs to be done.”
The Healthy Homes program was created in 2018 after a citywide vote that gave health officials the authority to address health and safety problems in rental properties, KCUR reported. Inspectors handle everything from reports of wastewater to mold, pests and electrical issues.
The pandemic is one of a few factors that have likely caused the spike in complaints, the city’s environmental health services division manager, Naser Jouhari, told KCUR.
“We are receiving more details [in the complaints], believe it or not,” Jouhari said. “I mean, people are staying home more, just spending more hours at home and these properties are being used.”
Significant problems at two apartment complexes — Harvard Court and Gabriel Towers — have driven many of the complaints, he said.
Tenants at Gabriel Towers raised concerns about a lack of air conditioning, according to KSHB. And Harvard Court, renters reported pest infestations, mold and the smell of a decomposing body that wasn’t discovered until weeks after people first complained to managers, according to KMBC.
Jouhari said he went to both sites to talk with tenants, and that the health department’s response at these and other locations may be motivating more calls.
“It seems like there's a trust issue,” Jouhari told KCUR. “And then, once they see that actually the health department is making a difference and forcing management to correct these violations or deficiencies, they started filing complaints.”
To reach the Healthy Homes Rental Inspection Program call 816-513-6347, or go to kcmo.gov/city-hall/departments/health/healthy-homes-rental-inspection-program