KANSAS CITY, Mo — It was standing room only inside Kansas City, Missouri, council chambers on Tuesday afternoon for an ordinance that could protect renters from discrimination.
In a crowd of yellow representing KC tenants, one person was missing — Alaysha Jenkins.
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She waited in the hallway for a while before standing in front of the city's legal review committee.
"Many landlords believe awful stereotypes about people using vouchers," Jenkins said. "They say we're lazy, violent, and destructive; they say we're moochers."
She's a single mother in south Kansas City's rental market. It makes her emotional to think of what she can't do for her kids.
"I want a fair chance to give my children the opportunity I didn't have," Jenkins said. "To be in an neighborhood next to quality community centers and libraries."
The ordinance intends to ban discriminatory practices in housing. Any violations would come with a $1,000 fine.
It includes protections for people whose source of income is housing vouchers, disability payments and/or a pension.
The ordinance would also prevent landlords from refusing to rent to a potential tenant due to prior convictions, alleged damages, an adverse credit report, lack of credit history and prior convictions or arrests without considering additional information from the renter.
Edwin Lowndes, executive director for KCMO's Housing Authority, said with a housing choice voucher wait list of 17,500 people, he is in full support of the ordinance's source of income provision if it stood alone.
He asked the committee to do additional research before making a decision on the other requirements.
Some landlords who showed up to the meeting believe the ordinance lacks protections for them.
"It could end with us losing our housing business. It's not fair. It's punitive. It's not good. We need to be working together," said Stacey Johnson Cosby, a landlord and local realtor.
Chris Woods showed up as a representative of the Apartment Association of Kansas City.
"It would do more harm for everybody — landlords because we take on an increased risk, then, overall as a market," Woods said.
Instead of forcing landlords to accept these stipulations, they want city officials to consider an alternative.
"Find a landlord incentive program that would incentivize us to participate in the voucher program instead of forcing us," Johnson-Cosby said.
The city of Lawrence and St.Louis-area have adopted similar ordinances. A group of landlords are challenging the ordinance in Lawrence with Douglas County District Court.
KCMO's proposed ordinance may pit some landlords and tenants against each other for different reasons, but to single mothers like Jenkins, there's a reason she helped write it.
"I want myself and other Black women to be free," she said. "Can you imagine being able to choose where you live?"
The ordinance passed out of the legal review committee on Monday. It could go before city council as soon as Thursday.
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