kANSAS cITY URBAN CORE AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROBLEMS….AND A SOLUTION
THE PROBLEM:
Kansas City, Missouri has hundreds of distressed and abandoned single family homes and vacant lots in its central core. The homes all require substantial renovation, and most have a variety of title issues. Vacant lots are overgrown and a magnet for illegal dumping. Houses sit and wait their turn to be torn down. Most have been waiting for years. The average cost to demolish a small 1100 square foot house is $10,000- $12,000. Rarely will the city recoup their cost from the previous homeowner. While they sit waiting to be torn down, they continue to deteriorate, become a home for illegal activity, squatters and a continuing spiral of neighborhood blight.
Since the real estate bubble and crash a decade ago, access to financing for home ownership has become much more difficult. Unfortunately for some, the dream will never be realized. They continue to be renters and rarely establish roots in the neighborhoods they move to. All the while they are at the mercy of the landlord that controls the rent they pay and the maintenance on their house.
Urban Blight….
Some houses have sat vacant for years and are a magnet for trash, rodents and crime. Squatters break in and create more havoc in the neighborhood. In cold weather months they set fires to stay warm. Sometimes they get out of hand and the house burns down. Another scar for the neighborhood and its residents to live next to and look at everyday.
THE SOLUTION:
Tikkun-KC buys houses from the Kansas City Missouri Land Bank. We renovate to today’s standards and sell them to vetted low income individuals and families on a seller financed note structured to fit their specific circumstances.
This will take a house off the demolition list and put it back on the property tax roll, saving the city thousands of dollars and providing much needed tax revenue for Jackson County. We hire contractors from the area for renovation and yard clean up. A ripple effect usually occurs when we tackle the worst houses on the block others will begin trimming bushes, painting and other long neglected repairs. When we purchase a house, we try to purchase any adjacent vacant lots and turn them into community gardens or clean them up for green spaces. Last but certainly not least, a deserving family goes from renting to home owner, planting roots and help stabilize the neighborhood.
