What landlords should know about KC’s discrimination ban

By Kathy Feist

When the Kansas City City Council approved legislation last month to ban source of income discrimination for housing, many landlords raised an eyebrow or two. The ban would mean that landlords could not disregard a tenant based on their source of income. With a penalty of a $1000 fine or time in jail for noncompliance, it’s worth reviewing the ordinance which goes into effect August 1. 

The Telegraph asked Sixth District City Councilman Johnathan Duncan, who sponsored the legislation, to help break down the information. 

What is the ordinance in a nutshell?

This ordinance bans housing discrimination based on how tenants pay their rent. That includes seniors on social security, veterans receiving disability compensation, workers who earn tipped wages, students receiving stipends, and poor families using housing vouchers.

Does this ordinance ban background checks?

Duncan says background checks are still permissible.

  “This ordinance does not affect your ability to screen applicants and take into consideration their credit history, criminal history or source of income or income ratio,” assures Duncan. “All those things could still be taken into consideration.” 

The ordinance requires landlords to take into account mitigating factors when reviewing the applicants, such as personal references, the recency and severity of adverse events in their history and actions taken to remedy some of those events. 

“We found that there were landlords here in Kansas City that stated ‘We do not accept vouchers’ or ‘Any prior evictions need not apply.’  That is now prohibited based on this ordinance,” says Duncan. “We want landlords to take into account the whole person when making a determination on an application.”

Does this ordinance force landlords to accept vouchers?

The ordinance does not require landlords to accept vouchers that do not cover the total amount of rent.  It does prohibit landlords from using a tenant’s lawful source of income (voucher, cash, social security check) as the sole basis for rejecting their application.

Will landlords lose rental income while waiting for Housing Authority inspections?

Many landlords experience a loss of revenue while waiting for the Kansas City Housing Authority to inspect rental property leased to a housing voucher applicant. “It’s the inefficiency of the local government that we are rejecting, not the voucher holder,” says Stacey Johnson-Cosby, a spokesperson for the KC Regional Housing Alliance. She claims the wait can be as long as two to eight months without rental income, a major motivator to avoid voucher holders. 

The Housing Authority reports that inspections generally are scheduled within two to four weeks. 

To address this issue, the ordinance creates a $1 million Landlord Risk Mitigation Fund Pilot Program that compensates compliant landlords during the wait period. 

Classes will be available through the Housing Authority to educate landlords on what they need to do to comply with inspections, as well as mediate any issues that may arise between a landlord and a tenant, according to Duncan.

“We want to make sure that we take care of tenants, and that we also take care of landlords in this process as well,” says Duncan. 

Why the harsh penalty?

The ordinance states that reports of discrimination will be investigated by the Housing Authority within a period of 30 days. If found guilty, the first step is to seek conciliation with the landlord. If the landlord refuses, he or she will be prosecuted in municipal court and all rental property and discrimination practices will be investigated. If found guilty in court, the landlord will be fined $1000 or 180 days imprisonment and the unit in question will be placed in special probationary status; that is, not leased until the landlord has completed compliance classes.  “The goal is not to penalize landlords,” says Duncan. “But we understand without strong enforcement measures, there are no additional incentives to comply.”

Will this help reduce homelessness?

According to a HUD study, families with vouchers had greater success accessing better housing and moving out of homelessness when cities implemented a source of income discrimination ban.

Though discrimination practices by landlords are one source of the problem, at the heart of the matter is the bureaucracy. Housing vouchers have time limits that must be used before they expire, usually within a few months. Once they expire, the voucher holder must return to a waitlist, now up to 17,500 applicants in Kansas City, which amounts to a two-year wait, according to Duncan. 

“The Housing Authority only has enough funding for so many vouchers and they do not have enough funding to address the need,” he explains.

“We want to ensure that everyone with a voucher has a place to live,” he says. “And that no one is having to lose their voucher and therefore becoming homeless because they can’t find a place that will accept their voucher.”

“This ordinance is one small step forward to ensuring that more people get housing in Kansas City. We have a long, long way to go.”