KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Council has passed an ordinance banning source of income discrimination.
An example of a source of income would be a Section 8 housing voucher.
The vote was 10-3 Thursday. The three council members to not support the ordinance were all from the Northland: Kevin O’Neill, Wes Rodgers and Nathan Willett.
After the vote, KC Tenants members gave a large roar of applause. KC Tenants organizer Brandon Henderson said currently, renters are restricted to very few select neighborhoods in the city.
“This ordinance is going to give folks a chance to live in places such as Midtown, South Kansas City, the Northland, where you don’t see a lot of opportunity for folks with vouchers to live,” Henderson said before Thursday’s meeting.
Before the vote, Councilmember and Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw introduced an amendment to the ordinance, making sure that landlords would not have to rent to violent or sex offenders.
Still though, landlords like Robert Ontman said the ordinance puts current renters in danger.
“Seventy percent of us who do rental property, we’re just family based. We’re trying to feed our families, our worker’s families, and we’re trying to take care of our renters, and we can’t do that,” Ontman said after the vote.
“We have to keep raising our rents to now cover the risk of not being able to do background checks.”
Mayor Quinton Lucas sponsored the ordinance and said 50% of the people who live in the city rent.
The ordinance doesn’t take effect until May 1 of this year.