Kansas City Housing providers win Preliminary Injuction over the Source Of Income Ordinance.
A federal judge blocked the Kansas City Missouri Source Of Income Ordinance that required housing providers to not discriminate against potential renters based on their source of income. The injunction pertains to housing vouchers only.
The City has not stopped all enforcement of source of income discrimination investigations related to housing voucher recipients.
From Attorney Julie Anderson
Attorney Julie Anderson has several blog post on her website about the court cases and the bills in Jefferson City:
On the Injunction: read the full post
o The injunction takes effect immediately and will remain in place while the case is
litigated.
o Kansas City cannot enforce the ordinance against landlords declining Section 8 vouchers.
o The case is ongoing, and a final ruling on the constitutionality of the ordinance is still pending.
On the Bills to Change Law: read the full post
From the Media on the Injuction
The media has shared quotes from Doug Stone, the attorney on behalf of the landlords, Mayor Lucas and they even say they reached out to the Tenants – has anyone asked your side of the story?
- From the PublicLawLibrary.org
- From KSHB41
- From KCTV 5
- From Fox 4
- From the Pete Mundo Show featuring Stacy Johnson-Cosby
From Attorney Doug Stone
“I certainly won’t dispute that we have a homelessness problem in Kansas City, but I think it’s probably a little more accurate to say not that there are 17,000 people with vouchers looking for units, but there are 17,000 people on the waiting list to receive a voucher,”
“It’s not just ‘Hey, here’s my voucher can I live here?’ I, actually, as a landlord, I have to now become part of a program, allow my records to be open to inspection by the federal government, all of my business records. I chose not to do that. The federal government doesn’t make me do that. It’s a voluntary program. It’s not right for the City to make me join a federal program that requires me to waive my rights,”
“We’re gratified agreed with us,” said attorney Doug Stone, a partner at Lewis Rice Law Firm that represents the landlords. “That’s the reason the court did what it did. The court came to the conclusion that, much as we had asserted, that forcing a landlord into a program at the federal level that is otherwise a voluntary program is not an appropriate obligation to impose. Being in the program means I have to waive any requirement that the government get a warrant to search my business records, which is one of the things that you waive when you become a Section 8 landlord. It runs afoul of my client’s constitutional rights.”
Injunction Response from Mayor Lucas
Mayor Lucas posted to his Facebook Page February 13th “The actions taken by landlords to challenge the program in courts and in Jefferson City jeopardize housing access for the over 17,000 Kansas Citieans waiting for housing vouchers, which leaves over 17,000 Kansas Citians still looking for a stable place to live in our city,” said Mayor Lucas. ” Having experienced homelessness in my own life, I can only hope that landlords spend time this winter working with the City, housing advocates in our community, and their renters to help people get and stay off the streets here in Kansas City, rather than looking to close the door to housing access through high-priced lobbyists and lawyers at our legislatures and in our courts”
First: Housing Providers Have Worked Hard to Provide Housing for Everyone. Mayor Lucas the landlords in this city have spent countless hours working with the City, housing advocates, and their renters to help people get and stay off the streets here in Kansas City for many years. We here at MAREI have been tracking efforts since 2019.
But time after time, we are not allowed to provide any input and what we do provide is tossed aside. With every new anti-landlord ordinance passed the city has lost more housing that was once owned locally to hedge funds. We have also worked hard to renovate older homes and build new ones, but the current permitting system is broken.
Second: It’s the Housing Voucher Program, not the Renters that Landlords Object To. Most if not all landlords do not object to the renters who utilize the housing voucher program. It is a government-funded and managed program itself. This program is a voluntary program at the federal level, requires specific conditions of the home, can take quite some time to get rent payments coming in, and should the renter have any change in circumstance, through no fault of their own, such as getting a better job, a raise or a high school child turning 18 and they can lose all or part of that payment, while still not being able to afford the rent. Or the federal government could have a shutdown as it did a few years back or anything else that the government does, seeing a lack of rent coming in and causing the need to evict the renter. So no, Section 8 and Housing Vouchers are NOT guaranteed income.
Third: Where is the money going to come from to house these extra 17,000 – there are no available vouchers for them right now and has never been for many many years. While there may be 17,000 people seeking a better place to live in Kansas City, they do live somewhere right now or we would see a lot more people on the street. A look at the HUD.gov and their HCV Data Dashboard shows the number of vouchers at a fraction of the 17,000 needed. This amount is in no way controlled by housing providers accepting or not accepting a voucher and instead on funding to the Housing Authority from the Federal Government and Housing Authorities across the country have had recent budget cuts. At the end of 2024, the Housing Authority in Kansas City had spent 104.62% of its budget. So if more housing providers were willing to accept vouchers where would the money be coming from to pay the rent?
Fourth: Housing providers have been forced to hire lobbyists and lawyers to protect our own rights afforded us by the Constitution of the United States . . with laws that violate these rights. Plus the city using our own taxpayer money to hire attorneys to represent the renters against the housing provider in eviction court.
Injunction pertaining to Section 8
UPDATE: February 11th, 2025, After careful consideration and review, the Court ORDERS that Plantiff’s motion for preliminary injunction is GRANTED.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the City, as well as the City’s officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all other persons who are in active concert or participation with any of them, shall be preliminarily enjoined and restrained from enforcing the Ordinance as it pertains to the Section 8 program. In particular, the City is enjoined from bringing or pursuing investigations pursuant to § 38-23 or imposing penalties pursuant to § 38-101 for any alleged violations of § 38-105 that are based on allegations of source-of-income discrimination related to the Section 8 program.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that this Order shall take effect immediately, and absent further order of this Court, shall remain in effect until the conclusion of litigation in this case.
IT IS SO ORDERED
Background
Passed by Kansas City Missouri in January of 2024. The Ordinance among other things requires housing providers to participate in the Housing Voucher Program known as Section 8.
The city claims that ordinance is to protect renters from discrimination, including those who receive supplemental security income, social security disability insurance, child support, tipped wages, and housing choice vouchers. The lawsuit filed on behalf of two area housing providers Kennedy F. Jones and Stephen J. Vogel accuses of “unconstitutional overreach.”
The Federal program behind housing vouchers does not require all landlords to accept Section 8 Vouchers for payment of rent. The ordinance does. “Participating in Section 8 imposes substantial burdens” the lawsuit states, which is why Congress made Section 8 voluntary.
The ordinance added further burdens on how a housing provider markets a rental property and screens a potential tenant . Many of the requirements in the city ordinance walk a very hard to meet burden on the housing provider as they also need to comply with federal fair housing. These issues are not addressed in the lawsuit. We will be discussing these issues and how to comply with the screening requirements in our Pop Up meeting with Attorney Julie Anderson on Tuesday October 15th.
For further information
Read the Lawsuit:
Read the Ordinance:
Other New Laws on the books In Kansas City Missouri:
- Missouri’s New Laws on Squatters
- The New Kansas Contract for Deed Act
- The New Kansas Protect Vulnerable Adults from Financial Exploitation Act
- And the New SOI Ordiannce or Kansas City Ordinance 231019
