Kansas City tenant activists detail ‘proposal for a better world’ at rousing rally

A few hundred activists with KC Tenants rallied in front of Gabriel Towers apartments on Kansas City’s east side Saturday as the activist group released its proposal for a People’s Housing Trust Fund, a plan to give power to the people, and as the group says, “ensure that people come before profit.”

KC Tenants leaders led the crowd in chanting “The rent is rising and so are we, house the people so we can get free,” and “not one cent for the slumlords,” outside the apartment building while they carried signs that read “house the people,” “tax the gentrifiers,” and “safe, accessible and truly affordable homes.”

The tenants of Gabriel Towers formed a tenant union in March in order to push for improvements, after facing a litany of deficient living conditions.

As the Kansas City Marching Cobras made their way through the parking lot, filling the air with the beat of the drums, the crowd of around 300 cheered. “Get it brother, get it,” one woman said.

“We are here to tell you about our dreams, our vision, our proposal for a better world,” KC Tenants leader Jenay Manley said, as a tenant opened her window from inside an apartment to record a video.

KC Tenants’ proposal to solve Kansas City’s housing crisis demands oversight from tenants, dedicated revenue and innovative programs. Under the proposal, tenants would have power and oversight over the Housing Trust Fund, meant to encourage developers to build more affordable housing or simply rehabilitate low-income housing already in existence.

Funding for the People’s Housing Trust Fund would be divested from sources including the police department and developers. And the proposed programs would protect tenants’ rights, keep them housed and build power.

Ruby Watson lost her job in 2018 and her landlord evicted her. She moved in with her daughter, who later was also evicted. Her anxiety and blood pressure went up, she said, and she couldn’t sleep.

“I used to smile all the time. That was me,” Watson said. “It’s harder for me to smile these days … sometimes I have to laugh to keep from crying.”

Kansas City police shot and killed her grandson, Malcolm Johnson, inside a gas station on March 25.

“I don’t give a damn what he did, he didn’t deserve to be killed by the police,” Watson said. “I’ve read our City’s budget. I know exactly how much of our money the police steal from us, to kill our kids. That money belongs to us. We need it for our homes, we need it to heal.”

KC Tenants’ proposal was put together by more than 50 leaders with the tenants’ rights organization over the last 10 months.

Michael Anderson, director of the Housing Trust Fund Project based at Community Change, has reviewed the proposal, KC Tenants leaders said.

The proposal will land in the email inboxes of Mayor Quinton Lucas, City Council and the city manager on Monday morning. Lucas, when he ran for office, envisioned a $75 million housing trust fund.

“I think that the mayor has tried to fight for housing, but I think that shifting away from actually working with impacted tenants leading the conversation will never actually achieve the dreams that he put out there when he was running for mayor,” Manley said.

Charrise Crawford, who moved into Gabriel Tower two years ago, said of living there, “it’s hell.” She described bedbugs that bit up her and her grandchildren “like a piece of chicken.” Crawford, who has a disability, said she hasn’t felt safe in her home since she came home one day to find a used condom in her bathtub.

“Rich men in Ohio get richer by taking our money while we living like this,” Crawford said. “That ain’t right.”

Sabrina Davis used to live in Nob Hill Apartments, which was owned by TEH Realty. Her home, she said, was infested with millipedes.

“When I reported to management, they treated me like a pest,” Davis said.

She described waking up to see bugs crawling on her sheets and the crunching sound of her stepping on bugs while she walked to the kitchen. Davis said she had to stop using her breathing machine because of the mold in her apartment.

“We shouldn’t have to suck it up when the offer is below the bare minimum just because we are poor and disabled,” Davis said. “That ain’t right. ... I am a 63-year-old woman who should not be living like this. No one should live like this.”

Watson said she wants neighborhoods to return to how they were when she was growing up — a community. She said she doesn’t want to have to worry about police coming in or being exploited by landlords.

As other KC Tenants leaders passed around 250 yellow flowers to Saturday’s attendees, Manley said that they are “planting the seeds of our dreams.”

Skyler Whittaker, a disability justice advocate, said the proposal is designed specifically to support disability justice. Whittaker said it’s important to “give us the power in terms of what safe, healthy, and accessibility mean to us because we are experts on our own needs.”

Ron Clark, who has lived in Kansas City his whole life, said his great grandfather came to Kansas City almost 100 years ago as the grandchild of enslaved people. He lived in his home for 50 years until his death at 103 years old.

“I want to be able to live here for 100 years,” Clark said. “I want to live in the neighborhood I love without ever having to worry about being priced out, without having to worry about being rich.”