Toellner Tells it

KCMO School District: Welcome to our world (& the one you're now perpetuating)

Last week, Kansas City police arrested two people who were allegedly trying to steal copper piping and wiring from the basement of Blenheim Elementary School. 

The School was one of several school buildings that was shut down last year in the Kansas City School District's move to "right size" the number of schools in the district. The building has been not in use for nearly a year.

For anyone who lives in the city, they are aware of these "copperheads" -- follks who routinely raid empty houses of wiring and piping -- often causeing tens of thousands of dollars in damages.  One house in my neighborhood went from selling for $130,000 to selling for $25,000 in less than a year after the house was completely stripped. The house suffered a lot of water damage from the stripped pipes, and would have to undergo a very expensive rewiring job.

This scene plays out all over the city as homes are systematically dismantled.

A year ago, when the district announced its desire to "right size", I noted that the school district needed to act quickly in getting these now-abandoned school buildings into new uses -- otherwise the building would fall into disrepair, would blight neighborhoods, and provide havens for criminal activity.  Meanwhile, it's now almost a full year from the closing of the schools and as far as I am aware, none of the 30 closed schools have been used for anything else (certainly the two in my neighborhood remain empty).

The longer these schools sit empty, the more likely they are to become victims of costly vandalism that will reduce the value of the buildings and cause blight in the neighborhoods. They'll also continue to drain police resources that are used in catching vandals like these two copperheads.  The school district needs to move quickly to get these schools into new uses.

Meanwhile, the city needs to seek some kind of solution to the problem of stolen copper. I'm not sure if there is a way to encourage the salvage yards that pay the money for the copper to do more research into where the copper came from before people are paid for their drop-offs, or what the right solution is -- but this is a type of vandalism that is proving very costly for abandoned homes in many Kansas City neighborhoods.

 

The mayoral assault on crime begins

Last week, mayoral candidate Henry Klein posted a video talking about the significant crime problems in Kansas City -- and does a great job of breaking down the specifics of the crime issues in KC (Kansas Citians are less safe than 98% of the US population).

Then, this week, candidate Deb Hermann also reportedly noted that solving Kansas City's crime issues should be a major topic of conversation for the upcoming mayoral election.

There should be little doubt that Kansas City must address its crime issues. With the 2010 murder count now rising over 100 homicides, and property crimes and other lesser violent crimes also increasing, it is pretty evident that this needs to be a focus.

However, the talk of reducing crime in our city has to move beyond talking about the police force. I think it is really important for all of the future city leaders to realize that crime, in and of itself, is not the problem.  It is a symptom of the many other problems that face the city.  If we are to really address the issue of "crime" in Kansas city, we must address the other issues, like education, transportion, employment opportunities and housing issues that plague the city.

Improvements to our school system are essential to helping solve the crime issues. There are countless studies that show the connection between low educational attainment and crime.  And with KCMO schools having lacked accredidation for over a decade now (and having been substandard for longer than that), it is no wonder that many parts of the city suffer from poorly educated residents.  Poor educational attainment also can be directly correlated to high unemployment (see chart left from the Washington Post).

Which then leads to the problem of jobs.

Over the past 3 decades, the Jackson County portion of KCMO has lagged the rest of the metro in job growth.  In fact, over the past 15 years, the KC metropolitan area has grown total jobs by about 7%, while the US has grown by job about 15%.  Unfortunately, the job growth has been almost entirely on the Kansas side of the state line -- with the KS counties growing by about 17%, and KCMO losing about 15% of its jobs.

Even worse than the reality that the jobs have moved to other parts of the metro is the reality that many of the people in Kansas City's urban core do not have viable transportation to get to these jobs. If they cannot (or do not) afford to have a car, the lack of consistent and viable public transit options (particularly across the state line) have kept them from being able to acces the jobs that exist in other parts of the metro. So while many political officials have been made fun of for the need for a true regional transit system, the reality is that the urban poor in KCMO are the ones that suffer the most from it not being available.

And finally, there is the issue of housing. Because of the lack of jobs, the poor education system, and the inability to get to jobs, over 17% of the KCMO population is currently living below the poverty line -- with a large portion of the low-income living in the city's urban core in Jackson County. The high concentrations of poverty are also related to the high incidences of shootings in the metro.  If the city must also look at a very detailed housing policy that will help break up heavy concentrations of low-income housing (especially in instances where it's government funded low-income housing).

The mayoral race to be the mayor who is tough on crime (not that anyone is running on the pro-crime platform) must involve not only talking about the police department, but must involve talking about the underlying causes of crime - -the symptoms, vs just fighting crime itself.  Officials must focus efforts on improving education (not necessarily a city function, but there are things the council can do), real job growth,better public transit across state lines, and better housing policies.

Tackling the symptoms of the problems will not only cure many of our ills, but will also make sure "fighting crime" is not a mayoral talking point for the next 20 years as well.

Another life claimed along Armour Section 8 Housing - but a light at the end of the tunnel?

On Saturday morning, at 11:30 am, a 20-ish year old Kansas City man was shot and killed in front of the Homestead apartments along Armour Boulevard. This is the same apartment building that a man who shot another man a block away along Troost ran into (after handing off his gun to a man standing in front of the building) in a shooting that was caught on video surveillance that Chief Corwin posted a couple of weeks ago.

The shooting marks what has become a series of violent crime centered around Kansas City's high-concentration of project-based Section 8 housing along Armour Boulevard. This is, I think the fourth actual murder that had taken place as a part of this particular building (The Homestead) in the past 14 months.

However, in spite of the city councils (still) not making any permanent changes to their housing policy, there appears to be some light at the end of the tunnel. Word is that MAC properties has purchased the Homestead (and potentially 3 other properties along Armour). MAC properties is a company out of Chicago that has a wealth of experience fixing up older apartment buildings and turning them into market rate housing (think low-priced apartments in the city, not high-priced condos - most rents appear to be in the $600-800 range). They have already done this with several buildings along Armour -- and the early signs have been great for the neighborhood.

While MAC really does a great job with mixed use housing (mixing in Section 8 along with Market rate), they seem to be unable to do this in Kansas City due to our lack of housing plan.

Regardless, it appears that at least one of the places that has been a nightmare of a place for the residents and the police force looks like it has improvements on the way.

MAC actually has

More from Chief Corwin on efforts to stop crime on Armour Boulevard

Today, KCMO Police Chief Corwin has a second installment of the actions the city is taking to curb what he calls an escalation of crime along Armour near Troost.  In today's blog posting, Corwin notes how the city is using video cameras to catch crime in the area - and shows how 3 cameras showed a man shooting another man at Armour and Troost -- then going to a nearby apartment building (one of several project-based Section 8 units in the area) and then the gun exchanges hands twice while a young girl watches.

Yesterday, Corwin noted that they have declared a very high crime area along Armour as a Restricted Zone where people convicted of certain crimes in the area are not allowed to be in that area after they are released from jail. The reason for the restricted zone, according to Corwin, is because the small area saw 6 homicides in 2009 and a rise in other shootings and narcotics cases. Four people have gone back to jail upon being in the zone since the start of the program with another 11 people on the restricted list.

It should also be noted that the Missouri Housing Development Corporation has fronted $75,000 to help pay for off-duty officers to patrol the area.

The area residents have been critical of the city's lack of low-income housing policy that has allowed the concentration of low-income people into a few small high-rise buildings that has led to the increase in crime in the area. While the police are very aware of the issues and definitely working to make a dent in the violent crime problem, city hall remains quiet on any actual changes to permanent solutions to the problem.

While some have wanted to cast the situation as the haves vs the have nots, I challenge anyone to watch the video and criticizing any neighborhood for not wanting to deal with people shooting other people, and young children getting to watch guns being passed around in front of them. And you would think that anything that would help curb the violent crime in the city should be welcomed.

The problem is not new. Heck, I first wrote about it here 18 months ago. And the 2009 numbers are pretty staggering.  And I applaud the KCMO Police for being innovative in their approach to dealing with crime hot spots in the city. Meanwhile, city hall, where are you? How can you consistently fail to ignore the city's lack of a thorough, smart policy on dealing with low-income housing and the crime that it is leading to?

More gunfire, one dead, in Armour Section 8 Apartments

Yesterday afternoon, 2 men were shot, one fatally, in the Georgian Court Apartments on Armour Blvd.

The man who was still alive was a resident of the building and said that the other man tried to break into his apartment, so he shot him in self defense. The dead man was found in the doorway to the apartment.

This marks yet another shooting in one of four major project-based Section 8 buildings along Armour. While this is the first murder in any of the apartments this year, there were 5 that were within a block of these apartments last yaer.

Many officials are starting to see the problems with project-based Section 8 -- isloating people with low incomes to live only among others with low incomes. Authorities from the state have gotten involved, and a new management company with the apartments has also helped. But the idea of vertically segregating low-income people into a high-rise building creates an unsafe situation for them, and a situation that does not set them up for the best opportunities to removing themselves from assisted housing.

We must find a way to deconsolidate low-income housing in this city and move to a more voucher-based system so that we can have the best results for everyone -- especially those who live in these apartments. This has been going on far too long. We must show an ability to learn from 30 years of mistakes.

H/T: Crime Scene KC

Related: Crime, Armour Boulevard and Redefining an Urban Struggle

Opposing Project Based Section 8 is opposing bad policy

Another Shooting in Sectoin 8 Housing Along Armour BLVD

Even random shootings are somewhat predictable when bad public policy is at play

Creating modern day ghettos?

Crime, Armour Boulevard, and redefining and urban struggle

Earlier today, Blog KC pointed out a new article from the Pitch on crime along Armour Boulevard.

Sadly, the title of the article, gives you the initial sense that The Pitch has used the same lazy journalism that has been (barely) covering this story from the start: Along Armour, Hyde Parkers Battle Low Renters in and Epic Urban Struggle.

I'll talk about the real "Urban Struggle" in a bit --  as well as a few key points from the article -but let me provide a bit of background:

There are two different types of Section 8 Housing.

1) Tenant-based Section 8 -- This is where qualifying residents get government-funded support that will pay a substantial part of the cost of their market-rate housing.

2) Project-based Section 8 - Where entire buildings, blocks, or apartment complexes are designated to be solely occupied for Section 8 Tenants.

In the mid 1970s, following the civil rights movement of the 60s, urban (often white) flight led to many urban cores being evacuated by middle-income people in favor of our suburbs. At that time, project-based Section 8 became a new way of "dealing with" low-income housing -- and it was easy to institute because large areas of our urban core were becoming abandoned.  In 1970, the population of Kansas City, MO was 507,087. By 1980, it had declined by 12% to 448,159. During this time, many of the apartment buildings that had become empty were filled up with project-based Section 8. Most of these leases were signed for 20-30-40 year projects.

Over the course of the last 40 years or so, we've learned a lot about the "success" of Project-based Section 8 Housing.  Here is what theUS Department of Housing and Urban Development has to say about Project-Based Section 8:

Most housing professionals agree that concentrating assisted-housing for low- and very low-income Americans in dense, urban areas is not an effective use of scarce affordable housing resources. Over the past decade, professionals in the affordable housing industry have turned increasingly to mixed-income housing as an alternative to traditional assisted-housing initiatives. Mixed-income housing is an attractive option because, in addition to creating housing units for occupancy by low-income households, it also contributes to the diversity and stability of American communities.

However, in spite of the learnings about project-based Section 8, as these Section 8 agreements have come up for renewal, HUD and the city of Kansas City have been renewing the Projects because Kansas City lacks a detailed housing plan for the city that would provide alternatives that would allow for preferable mixed-income housing.

The result has been the renewal of two major projects along Armour Boulevard -- two projects that had not been completely full in nearly a decade, opening up in full in late 2008. With the opening of these two buildings as project-based Section 8 Housing, 45% of the tenants along a 12 block stretch of Armour are in Project Based Section 8. Approximately 20% of the city's 92 Section 8 buildings reside in the 64109 area code.

In 2009, with all of the Section 8 buildings fully occupied, the crime statistics increased in the area dramatically -- including many violent crimes. The corner at Armour & Harrison has been a KCPD "Aggravated Assault Hot Spot" for 4 consecutive quarters.

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The article in the Pitch was at least well researched. The article rightly points out three particular buildings that have caused a majority of the problems.

At the Kenwood -- (which has 60 units) - police reports for 2009 show one rape, two aggravated assaults, one armed robbery, five burglaries, six non-aggravated assaults, six cases of possessing drugs with intent to sell or distribute, five reports of property damage, one case of resisting an officer, three incidents of stolen auto parts, four cases of trespassing and one car theft.

At the Homestead - (70 units) - five aggravated assaults, two car thefts, three burglaries, one report of harassment, two of concealing a dangerous weapon, one of intimidating behavior, six non-aggravated assaults, nine cases of possessing narcotics (eight of which included sale or distribution), two counts of resisting an officer, one report of a pickpocket, one of stealing from a car, two of trespassing, and one dead body.

And at the Bainbridge - (160 units) - 61 cases of non-aggravated assault, 26 cases of drug possession (of which 24 included sale or distribution), four rapes, 37 reports of trespassing, one of resisting arrest, two weapons violations, five of resisting an officer, a dozen reports of property damage, three of forgery, 13 aggravated assaults, six of intimidation, four auto thefts, four armed robberies, five strong-arm robberies, 11 burglaries, and four incidents of a person concealing a dangerous weapon.

The list is pretty outrageous for 3 buildings all located about 6 blocks apart -- and two of the buildings, the Homestead and the Bainbridge sit right across the street from each other and occupy the same city block. In the first 9 months of 2009, this one city block, which consists of 230 apartment units, registered 860, 9-1-1 calls. 84% of the 9-1-1 Calls along Armour occurred at Project 8 Section 8 buildings, which make up 45% of the total units.

The article relies on a lot of quotes from various people throughout the neighborhood -- Eugene Lipscomb from HUD, David Kimmis from the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, a few residents from some of the Section 8 buildings, and a handful of residents from local neighborhood. Unfortunately, instead of venturing outside of the neighborhood, the Pitch article stops short, and calls the story "a classic story of the tensions between old-timers and newcomers, black and white, rich and poor."

It was the lazy way out -- and unfortunately, the direction the position many in the mainstream media and the blogging community, has chosen to take.

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There are a few realities that the article missed -- and a huge opportunity lost for the Pitch article.

1) While Hyde Park has been on the forefront of the complaints, other neighborhoods have less vocal in their support of the city developing a comprehensive housing plan that would create less Project-based Section 8 and more mixed-use, voucher based Section 8. Old Hyde Park, Squire Park, Center City, Manheim, and Ivanhoe have all joined in signing a plea from the neighborhoods for the city to create the detailed housing plan necessary to break up the project-based Section 8.

2) There have been multiple neighborhood meetings on the subject. Even though the article made it sound like none of the residents from the buildings were invited to attend, several of the speakers at those meetings that spoke out about the need to fix the problem of crime associated with these apartments were residents of the buildings. Most mentioned living in fear, and others not stepping forward because they feared retribution.

3) How is it that this story was written and NO ONE from City Hall was interviewed?

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Back in September, a 20 year old woman -- 9 months pregnant with a child -- was shot in the head at point blank range while she sat in the car with her boyfriend out in front of of the Linda Vista Apartments - a project based Section 8 apartment along Armour. She died immediately, as did her unborn infant.  She was the fourth person shot to death along a 3 block stretch of Armour just this year.

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While much of the media has gone the direction of painting this as a race/class issue, many realities have been ignored.  While the Pitch Headline paints this as a "classic urban struggle" -- it is a different one than the one it paints.

The "Urban Struggle" isn't based on newcoming, rich, white people moving into the city and trying to drive out it's poor black neighbors. It's about undoing the racial hatred and bigotry that created project-based Section 8 on the heals of the civil rights movement, at the height of white flight, in the first place.

It's about reversing the project-8 that was created in the 70s -- in favor of mixed use apartments - -a move that even HUD, in their own policies, says is a better option. Virtually every expert in the field of urban housing agrees that mixed-use apartments is preferred to project-based vertical segregation.

The people who live in the apartments are feeling the brunt of the centralized crime. The residents deserve a place to live where they don't feel threatened daily. It has become easy for people to paint the Hyde Parkers as the ones who want to drive out the poor to lower the crime, it is hard to believe that the vast majority of the people who live in these Section 8 Apartments would choose to live in an apartment where they are surrounded by crime, where innocent women are shot to death while sitting in a car on the curb, if they had other options. Unfortunately, they don't. This is the destiny determined for them by the people who are in charge of low-income housing policy in the city.

Kansas city deserves better than this. The people in low-income housing deserve better than this. The people who live in the neighborhood deserve better than this. We all deserve better than to continue down the same path that drove the population of this city to decline for 3 decades.

It's way too easy and lazy to paint this white vs black, rich vs poor. It's not. It's about listening to the experts in the field of urban housing, learning from the mistakes of our past, and when possible, fixing those mistakes. It is foolish to let the city of Kansas City off the hook for not having a long-term housing plan that takes advantage of the best knowledge available on what creates better, safer cities -- for everyone.

It's a new form of urban struggle -- undoing what we've done.  We need to quit with the ridiculous stereotyping of people as racist and classist, learn from 40 years of history, and do what is right.

Another murder at a Section 8 Apartment Building on Armour

Two people were shot while waiting in a car in front of the Linda Vista Apartment Building at the corner of Armour and Tracy.

One victim, a 25 year old woman who was nearly 9 months pregnant, was shot in the head and died almost immediately. Doctors tried to save the unborn child but were unable to.

The other victim, was the woman's 19 year old boyfriend who received critical wounds from the incident.

The Linda Vista Apartment Building was one of four major project-based Section 8 apartments that were renewed by the city 3 years ago -- concentrating low-income people in particular buildings.

We can continue to deny there is a problem and do nothing, or readily admit that government regulations that are purposefully consolidating Section 8 are leading to an increase in violence.  While we do nothing, families are mourning, and people feel unsafe.

Opposing Project Based Section 8 is opposing bad policy

It doesn't come as much surprise to me that my post last week about the Section 8 Housing along Armour was met with skepticism. I think it is easy for people who are not familiar with Section 8, or not familiar with the area, to dismiss the neighborhood's concerns about these apartments as a case of racism, or a situation where the people in Hyde Park are trying to force out their lower income neighbors.

But if people care enough to actually investigate the situation, I think they will realize that bad policy is bad policy, regardless of who is complaining about it. No one wants to live in a high crime area -- not people in the Hyde Park neighborhood, nor the low-income people who live in the Section 8 apartments. This is clearly not an us against them type of setup --because high crime isn't good for anyone: the residents of the apartments, the neighborhood, or the city.

The Problem

There are many apartmens along this eight block stretch of Armour, however, there is a pretty dramatic differential in crime between those that are designated as project-based Section 8, vs those that are market rate (some of which allow for Section 8 vouchers).  The following is a list of the apartment units along Armour, the number of units in each building, and the number of 911 calls in the first nine months of the 2009.  I'm working off of a chart for this, so I don't have exact numbers, so I've estimated the numbers:

Apartment Units 911 Calls

Bainbridge (Sec 8)      160    610

Homestead (Sec 8)  70 250

Georgian Court (Sec 8)    90    180

Kenwood (Sec 8)     60 160

Locust St Apts (Sec 8) 40 110

Newbern (Market Rate) 130 70

Armour Towers (MR)    80 40

Hamilton (MR) 70 40

Armour Flats (MR)   40 50

Sombart (MR) 40 20

Obviously the Section 8 apartments are drawing a out-of-line number of 911 calls based on these numbers -- with each unit averaging 3.1 calls per unit, where each unit in the market rate apartments averages .6 calls per unit. High concentrations of low-income individuals --for a variety of social reasons -- is a magnet for higher crime.

This isn't just 911 calls -- the same ends up being true for actual crimes -- including shootings, strong armed robberies, rapes and assaults. This distinction is why the corner where the Homestead and the Bainbridge are located has become an aggravated assault hot spot in the KCPD quarterly homicide report You can view the map highlighting the apartment area here.

No one wins when crime is this high. Let's look at the victims.

The people who live in the Section 8 Apartments

When I say no one wants to live in an area that is a highly concentrated area of poverty, no one if affected more than the people who live in the aprtments. Most of the people who live in these apartments are nice people -- they're just financially strapped. They don't have many options on where they live -- they're sort of stuck in having to live in Section 8 housing. And in this case, they're stuck living in very violent section 8 housing.

When you watch the report by KCTV5 about the most recent shooting in the Kenwood Apartments, listen to the woman who is scared for her children and scared to have her name or face on tv. When people ask why the reseidents are not stepping up, this is a large part of why. They're scared. They're under-privilaged. And they're largely ignored by the powers at city hall. So why risk their lives and retaliation by stepping forward when no one will likely listen to them. Many are, but many, justifiably, are not.

Many of these people would gladly move, but do not have the resources to relocate and very few options available to them. They are trapped, prisoners in their own homes.

This is one of the reasons HUD no longer promotes project-based section 8 housing and now favors the voucher system that promotes mixed-use living. Here's what they have to say:

Most housing professionals agree that concentrating assisted-housing for low- and very low-income Americans in dense, urban areas is not an effective use of scarce affordable housing resources. Over the past decade, professionals in the affordable housing industry have turned increasingly to mixed-income housing as an alternative to traditional assisted-housing initiatives. Mixed-income housing is an attractive option because, in addition to creating housing units for occupancy by low-income households, it also contributes to the diversity and stability of American communities.

Voucher-based section 8 allows low-income residents choose where they want to live -- which allows them to live, not just in an apartment building with only low-income people. Studies have shown that the ability for low-income people to get back on their feet faster is enhanced by living in lower crime, mixed income, housing.

The Residents of the Surrounding Neighborhood

Crime has a negative impact on quality of life. Most people like the idea of being able to walk their dogs, go for an evening jog, and living in a relatively crime-free neighborhood.  While a lot of the crime remains in the apartments themselves, a lot of it also filters out into the neighorhood. The fear of crime, burglarly or worse, definitely hurts quality of life.  It decreases neighborhood walkability and also decreases home values.

If the crime becomes too intolerable, many of the people in the surrounding neigbhorhood have the ability to relocate to a new neighborhood. If they decide to relocate, many will move to other communities outside of KCMO -- possibly Johnson county or eastern Jackson County.  It is this type of urban flight that led KCMO to decrease in population from 507,087 people in 1970, to 435,146 in 1990 (the 2006 estimate is that we're at 447,306 people in KCMO). Obviously having people leave the city is a negative for the city proper.

Kansas City, MO

The biggest loser in all of this is Kansas City, MO. The high crime generated from these apartments continue to drain resources from the police department. Meanwhile, the crime also prevents many people from wanting to live in many areas of the city -- this lower's property values (which decreases property tax revenue) and lowers the number of people who want to live in the city (which also decreases tax revenue). Because people don't want to live in these high-crime areas, it increases the number of abandoned houses that then cause the city more problems. 

The whole thing is a lose/lose/lose for the city, the apartment residents and for the surrounding neighborhood. 

While many of the areas of the city that suffer from high poverty, high crime, and high numbers of abandoned homes are that way due to generations of social issues that will take time to fix, the particular problems along Armour Boulevard are that way 100% because the government has created it (with our tax dollars).  And that's pretty messed up.

What should we do?

There are a lot of different options for what we do.

Many seem to want to just dismiss this as a bunch of people just trying to run off poor people in their neighborhood. They're ignoring that this isn't just Hyde Park residents, but leaders of other urban neighborhoods such as Old Hyde Park, Manheim, Squire Park, Center City and Ivanhoe have all joined together to seek better options for low-income housing in the city. They're also are ignoring that the majority of the experts on Section 8 housing acknowledge that high concentrations of low-income housing create crime problems and are not good for the neighborhoods or the residents.

Sure, we coudl decide to ignore the problem, and relive the last 40 years over again as the city.

Or, we can decide to do something about it. We can decide create a voucher-based section 8 system that allows those who need assistance can live anywhere they want with assistance, and not just in a few select buildings. Part of a comprehensive plan will include being sure enough housing is available in the city that have viable access to amenities like public transit (and creating more viable public transit in other parts of the city - including access to jobs in other parts of the metro -- but that's a whole other post).  We can create options for the residents of Section 8, and decrease the concentration of crime in Hyde Park.

This solution won't eliminate crime in midtown. No one is saying it will. But it will deconsolidate it which carries a lot of advantages:

1) It makes Section 8 residents not prisoners in their own homes

2) It makes this particular neighborhood in midtown more livable, which will increase demand for people living there (which increases revenue for the city)

This doesn't remove the need for social programs to help people, nor does it eliminate the need for police presence, but it will help everyone -- with virtually no negative side effects. Most experts agree that this is a more viable solution....so why are denying it is a problem, denying the statistics and criticizing the messengers?

Another Shooting in Section 8 Housing Along Armour BLVD

On Sunday night, another man was shot inside an apartment building. The Building, part of the Kenwood Apartments, is one of several Section 8 Housing units along a 10 block stretch of Armour Boulevard between Gillham and Troost (the Kenwood is officiall on Locust, but borders Armour).

And this isn't the first shooting to happen in this stretch of apartment units this year.

Thus far, no fewer than 5 people have been killed along this stretch of Armour Boulevard -- with at least three of the victims actually being found inside the buildings - -including this incident in March, and a 7 month old girl killed in September -- not to mention this incident in September.

In all of the cases where the victim was found inside buildings, all occurred inside of apartments that were designated for project-based Section 8 housing.This also isn't the first incident that has occurred inside the Kenwood Apartments -- over Labor Day weekend, 2008, Gary McElroy was shot dead on the front steps leading into these apartments.

The purpose of project-based Section 8 is to provide safe, affordable housing for people who, because of low incomes, cannot afford it. However, it doesn't take much of reading the crime reports to realize that these project-based apartments are NOT safe for their tenants -- or for the surrounding neighborhoods.

Who's responsibility it is to solve the poblem remains somewhat elusive. There are a lot of people who could accept responsibility, but none who seem overly willing to. The buildings are all owned by out-of-town corporations. Most are managed by one of two major management companies. All are following Housing and Urban Development guidelines (although even HUD even acknowledges that project-based Section 8 housing -- where all units in a given building are designated for low-income housing and creating in the early 1970s, is not preferred to tenant based programs that allow tenants to live anywhere they want with assistance provided)*. And the city of Kansas City also needs to accept responsibility for its lack of a detailed housing plan that will provide for removing project-based section 8, and replacing it with tenant based programs.

* From the HUD website:

Most housing professionals agree that concentrating assisted-housing for low- and very low-income Americans in dense, urban areas is not an effective use of scarce affordable housing resources. Over the past decade, professionals in the affordable housing industry have turned increasingly to mixed-income housing as an alternative to traditional assisted-housing initiatives. Mixed-income housing is an attractive option because, in addition to creating housing units for occupancy by low-income households, it also contributes to the diversity and stability of American communities.

And while everyone seems more than willing to deny there is a problem (or at least, that it is THEIR problem), people are being found dead in these apartments and residents are living in fear and prisoners in their own home.

What makes this additionally troubling is that the problem is completely fixable -- if all of the vested parties would admit their is a problem and move forward, quickly , with a plan. This isn't a complicated social problem -- it is actually a problem created, in part, to bad housing policy that has ignored the opinion of experts in the field of public housing and concentrated low-income housing in these buildings.

It's time the city and all vested parties step up to do so. We cannot continue to ignore this problem any more.

For more reading:

Another murder on Armour, A Neighborhood Meeting, and a City Woefully Behind on Policy

Another murder on Armour -- if you care, make your voice heard

Even random shootings are somewhat predictable when bad public policy is at play

This is what happens when you consolidate project-based section 8 housing

Creating modern day ghettos

Update:  More from KCTV5 on the story -- I wish they had actually tried to find one of the residents of the buildings to talk too so it wasn't just a Hyde Park thing, but they've got the story.

Another murder on Armour, A Neighborhood Meeting, and a city woefully behind on policy

Today, CrimeSceneKC noted yet another death along Armour Blvd  -- this one involving a 7 month old child who's death is being treated as a homicide. 

That makes 2 murders in three days along a short stretch of the Boulevard. This death, itself, happened in one of the low-income housing units along Armour.

Last night, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association hosted a meeting to discuss the increase in crime -- particularly violent crime -- that has occurred in the neighborhood after the two apartment buildings were recently renewed for another 25 years of project-based Section 8 housing.

The meeting had about 250 attendees -- not just from the Hyde Park Neighborhood - -but also surrounding neighborhoods like Squire Park, Center City and Manheim -- as well as many residents of the low-income housing that is in question -- who are all being affected by the increase in crime in the area.

In spite of what other are making it out to be, the dislike of violent crime extends beyond race and income. 

Many numbers were shared about the increase in crime in the area -- including a 400% increase in crime at one intersection over the same time period a year ago.  The crime/911 calls seem to be centered around a handful of low-income housing buildings -- all owned by out-of-state companies -- that make up disproportionate share of the crimes in the area -- including 4 murders so far this year in the immediate vacinity of these buildings after having no murders in the neighborhood in all of last year when the buildings were mostly empty.

Members of the police force were there -- and I must say, the police spend a lot of time at these few buildings -- including having a police car and the paddy-wagon outside of the building as I left the association meeting last night.  But as one officer wisely said, you can't solve social issues by using a police force.

And the problem continues to be around the social issue of a) a large number of poor people in the KCMO area b) a very large concentration of the poor in certain areas of town and c) the proven statistical information that large concentrations of poor people in certain areas lead to a rise in crime.

However, it appears as if the city of Kansas City is very much to blame for HUD violating its own recommendations when it comes to low-income housing. HUD's own studies indicate that they prefer tenent-based Section 8 housing programs (where qualified residents get to choose where they live and get government assistence) to project-based Section 8 (where entire buildings or neighborhoods are dedicated to low-income housing) because it is better for the residents and for the neighborhoods.

So why did HUD recently renew 300 units of Section 8 along this stretch of Armour Blvd so that now, 45% of the apartments units along this stretch of Armour are designated as Section 8, and 19 of the city's 92 project-based Section 8 buildings are in the 64109 area code?

Because apparently Kansas City has no comprehensive housing plan in place for undoing the segregated low-income housing of the 70s and going to more modern, effect approaches to low-income housing.

While dealing with the problem by using police, city prosecutors, neighborhood watch groups and city codes officials is a good short-term solution to clean up the area -- and great recommendations were brought up at the meeting last night -- the reality is that without the city having some type of comprehensive housing plan, the problem will continue to persist.

And it is ending these problems permanently that we should insist city officials quickly and comprehensively create a housing plan for the city -- not just for the folks who live along Armour Blvd, but for the folks throughout the city that live in and around the 92 project-based Section 8 buildings that are causing crime problems throughout the metro.

It's time for the city to step up to the plate -- and not continue to make this not just a problem for the neighborhoods, for the low-income and for the police.