KC Tenants
People's Housing Trust Fund
We envision a Kansas City where everyone has a safe, accessible, truly and permanently affordable home, and we believe we know the way to get there.
We will not get there through incrementalism, or through pouring more money into the pockets of private profiteers. We will only get the Kansas City we deserve through intentional investments in our people.
We have envisioned a People’s Housing Trust Fund, one critical part of the solution. Housing Trust Funds are distinct funds established by city, county, or state governments that receive ongoing, dedicated sources of public funding to support the preservation and production of affordable housing and to increase opportunities for families and individuals to access decent affordable homes.
Click to read more: KC TENANTS PEOPLE’S HOUSING TRUST FUND
GOVERNANCE: Our proposed governance structure is designed to ensure that tenants have the loudest voice in determining where and how they will be housed. It is designed to ensure that tenants have power and oversight on all activities related to the Housing Trust Fund. Fundamentally, it is designed to ensure that people come before profit.
FUNDING: The funding structure we propose would channel funding away from the institutions that disproportionately harm our communities, especially Black and brown tenants, and into a new system that will heal. The funding mechanisms are designed to divest power and resources from the forces of violence, like the police, and displacement, like gentrifying developers and evictors, and invest power into our communities, providing stability and dignity to tenants.
PROGRAMS: We propose Housing Trust Fund programs that would protect tenants’ rights, keep tenants securely housed, and build power among poor and working class tenants throughout the City. These programs create space for the formation, support, and flourishing of the tenant unions explicitly legalized in Kansas City’s Tenant Bill of Rights. The programs proposed would prioritize and ensure physical, informational, and participatory accessibility for all tenants, regardless of their financial, mental, physical, or other abilities.
At KC Tenants, we believe that those closest to the problem are closest to the solution. When you read this proposal you will notice it is bold and unapologetic. That is not a coincidence. That is because it came from us, poor and working class tenants who demand a better world and will do whatever it takes to get there.