Thousands of rotting, abandoned homes plague Kansas City. Neighbors are tired of it. The city is, too.
While they’re planning to make strides in battling blight with a $10 million initiative, the important thing to remember is that they own those homes.
The privately owned homes, however, are a different story. It's one many people may not know.
Countless obstacles
City inspector supervisor, Terrell Mills, and another code enforcement officer show us how a homeless woman took over a vacant house at 8th & Wheeling.
“We’re just overwhelmed because last month, we had this all cleaned, everything removed. And now it’s back to the same thing. More junk,” Mills said.
The trash littering the backyard, ranging from shopping carts and golf clubs to suitcases and old lawnmowers, is all hers. The house is unlivable.
Code enforcement officer, Tamra Mills, says she’s been out to the property several times.
“I just had it boarded up, but she’ll take the boards back off and go right back in,” Tamra said.
That’s not the city’s biggest hurdle. Right now, they can’t even touch the house. It’s not theirs.
The owner is an LLC out of New Hampshire, The Lofts at Grand.
“It’s hard to find the owners because they kind of shuffle it,” Mills said. “They’ll sell it to one LLC one month, and the next month it might be quit-claimed to a different LLC.”
There are thousands more like the one on Wheeling. The reality is, two thirds of the city’s abandoned homes are privately owned.
“It’s very common. Australia, they have a lot of properties here. Also California, Texas, Utah,” Mills said.
“Who are you? Why do you want to buy an ugly house?” Neighborhoods and Housing Services director, John Wood, said.
He says it's because Kansas City is low value real estate. So many foreclosures after the recession made it easy for owners to vanish into thin air. It's a commodity to out-of-state and even out-of-country buyers.
“It’s difficult because you don’t know who they are. The mail comes back because they may have changed the address, and they can do that on a whim," Wood said.
The companies don’t have updated names or phone numbers listed, either.
The Lofts at Grand doesn’t even exist anymore, dissolved by the Missouri Secretary of State.
“They don’t care, they don’t have to deal with it,” Mills said.
His officers are faced with a lot more. They find drugs and dead bodies. Tamra has the task of trying to get the woman out of the home.
“I’ve been in once, and it was a disaster,” she said.
Since she has no legal right to go inside, all Tamra can do is knock and hope the woman comes out. The day we were there, she wouldn’t come out. Her sister, who is also homeless and hangs around the area, wasn’t happy to see us.
“Will you have her give me a call? She knows who I am,” Tamra calls to the sister.
“If I had to live here, I wouldn’t want to live next do this. It’s not fair,” Tamra said.
Costing the city millions
While inspectors run in circles, the city is left with millions of dollars a year in maintenance costs.
“They’re not our properties, but we’re stuck with them,” Mills said.
Mills says each board costs $60, so it adds up when they do it every day.
Take Moulton Avenue, for example. It’s a street where all but two homes are abandoned. The taxes on the homes we’re looking at have been delinquent for a couple years. Thick weeds that look more like a small forest are taking the properties over.
“You can’t put a regular mower on something like this, this takes a lot of man hours. It’s very expensive to get it done,” Mills said.
The houses are owned by people who are actually from the Kansas City area, Brian and Mendy Forbes. The problem is, they’re in federal prison for money laundering and fraud.
“Our hands are basically tied. It’s only so much we can do. We can’t expect compliance from someone who is incarcerated.”
The city also finds out they’re sending notice letters to owners who are dead. Many times the people have simply walked away.
“So the person who lives next door to those properties, they see the city as the bad guy because they think we’re responsible for it,” Wood said. “Well, we are to some extent. But we don’t have permission to go on the property or to make repairs.”
“There are 500 properties that need to be mowed. Realistically, if a property costs $500 to $600 to mow, how many do you think we’re going to get done?” Terrell said.
Mills says he wishes there was a solution
“I have hope, but it’s hard because sometimes you feel like you’re not making a difference,” he said.
What can be done?
The city can take ownership of the homes, but only after taxes have been delinquent for five years. The houses on Wheeling and Moulton have another few to go. At that point, the properties go up for auction at the city tax sale. If no one buys them, they’re funneled into one of the city’s several programs for rehab or demolition, like the Land Bank or receivership.
Sometimes Legal Aid of Western Missouri can use the Abandoned Housing Act, and take the property from the negligent owner to hand over to a non-profit for renovation.
The city also has to give the owner time to respond in court, which tacks on more time to an already lengthy process.
Moving forward
Wood said the city was so close to a resolution this year. The Missouri Senate approved a bill that would require LLC’s to register a real name and address with the city clerk, making it easier to contact them.
The bill got attached to separate bill that was ultimately vetoed by the Governor.
It’s back to square one.
“That’s frustrating,” Wood said. “You have to go to Jefferson City several times over two to three months, and you think you have it done, and you’re sort of a moving target.
They plan to reintroduce the bill in 2017.
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Sarah Plake can be reached at Sarah.Plake@KSHB.com
