Toellner Tells it

Two more historic apartment buildings being demolished at Taxpayer Expense

Two more old buildings in an historic neighborhood in Kansas City are coming down -- and KC Tax Payers are paying for it.

In the Union Hill neighborhood, there are two old homes (that are, honestly, in horrific shape) that are coming down, along with several apartment buildings. A couple of the apartment buildings are 1950s-ish style apartments whose style is not a fit for the neighborhood and probably never should have been built there in the first place.

However, the two pictured here, are original to the neighborhood and actually don't appear to be in terrible shape. But they're coming down -- to be replaced by single-family homes (which I'm told will be designed to match the neighborhood, but we'll see).

These two buildings have been run down for awhile and been a haven for a host of nefarious activities. However, it seems like such a shame to use tax money to a) destroy historic buildings and b) to remove density from our downtown area (and Union Hill is officially in the "downtown" via the Downtown Council's definition).

 

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

Chatham Hotel gets KCMO Council Approval?

According to an email from the Broadway/WestportCouncil, the old Chatham Hotel received the recommendation from the Kansas City Council for 4% MHDC Tax Credits. The money would help the developers turn the old, historic hotel into apartments for Seniors (I'm assuming some type of government assisted housing).

There will be a news conference on the front porch/lawn of the Chatham Hotel next Monday morning at 10 AM. The MDHC will vote on the tax credits on Friday May 21st.

The Chatham has been a blight on the this stretch of Broadway in Midtwon, near Westport, for years. And not only has it been an eye-sore, but it has provided housing for vagrants and other crime as well, causing safety issues in the neighborhood.

I don't know all of the specifics of the deal -- nor can I find anywhere in the media where the KCMO Council has approved the recommendation, but I do know that generally, fixing old, abandoned, historic buildings and making them into housing so we can improve the population density of our core is the type of project I generally support.

12th & Main originally brought up this story earlier this week -- but for some reason has taken the post down. I'm hopeful that some of the real media in this town will take it upon themselves to at least report what is going on with some potential redevelopment in town.

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.

Another Murder along Armour - if you care, make your voice heard

Yesterday afternoon, a man was shot killed in broad daylight along Armour Boulevard -- apparently following an argument between two men. The shooting occurred at the 600 block of Armour Boulevard.

The shooting occurred just two blocks from a large, concentrated section of Section 8 housing along Armour Boulevard that I've written about before here and here. A couple of years ago the city, along with HUD, renewed 300+ units of Section 8 housing in a very small geographic area. This consolidation of project-based low-income housing has brought with it a huge amount of violent crime.  Many of the residents of these buildings who are not involved in the criminal activity have become prisoners in their own homes for fear of going outside and dealing with the criminal activity.

Meanwhile, the direct vicinity of this consolidated low-income housing has now created its 3rd murder victim already this year. In 2008, while these apartments were being remodeled and were empty for the majority of the year, the area saw zero homicides.

It's not a coincidence. The consolidation of low-income housing -- creating essentially high-rise ghettos -- has proven itself to not be an effective way of dealing with low-income housing.  And yet, the city, along with HUD, approved these buildings to be renewed for the next 20 years.

Most of these people deserve better. The neighborhood deserves better. Kansas City deserves better.  The victims deserved better.

It is time to end the bloodshed. Tomorrow night, the Hyde Park neighborhood, along with folks from many of the adjacent neighborhoods are going to be having a meeting with local and state officials in order to discuss possible changes to the situation.  If you care enough to make a difference -- come to the Central Presbyterian Church at 3501 Campbell at 7:00 Tuesday night, September 15, to listen, show support and make your voice heard.

We can and must do better than this.

Kansas City's Feral Houses

Last week, KSHB ran a story about how the number of vacant lots in Kansas City, MO have doubled in the past year -- from 4,000 abandoned properties to 8,000. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone as according to Forbes Magazine, the Kansas City Metro area has the highest housing vacancy rates in the country - -and KCMO has bore much of the burnt of that.

One photographer in Detroit took advantage of their abandoned houses to take some photos of what they call "Feral Houses". (Hat Tip: PSFK).  This is a more back-to-nature version of the 100 Abandoned Houses project from Detroit earlier this year.

Feral and abandoned houses are not something just for kinda cool pictures.  They are actually devestating to neighborhoods.  They run down property values.  They providing safe havens for drugs, prostitution, gangs and other criminal activity.  And they undermine neighborhood watch programs because in many neighborhoods on Kansas City's east side, the number of abandoned homes outnumber those with residents.  And nothing is less safe than being in a neighborhood with no one around...

Here's a look at some photos of Kansas City's own Feral houses:

 

 

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

On Sunday morning, at around 1:20 am, 38 year old Lynn Glover was shot and killed while apparently waiting for a bus at a bus stop at 34th and Troost.  She was apparently killed by a stray bullet that was shot by a 16 year old who was shooting at someone else.

Ms. Glover's death is tragic.  And yet not unforseeable.

Just last week, KCMO published their Homicide Report for Q1 2009.

See the reddest dot on the map?  Yeah, that's where this shooting took place. I wrote about this back in January when I noted that back in 2008, this area had a new project-based Section 8 Housing building. These project based Section 8 housing units have proven around the country to increase crime in those areas. Back in 2006, Kay Barnes' staff signed off on a renewal of Section 8 housing in this area for another 25 years -- even though the contract violates current HUD standards.

Project based Section 8 is little more than verticle segregation that is creating modern day ghettos.

The crime from last year has continued into this year. Back in March, a man in one of the Section 8 buildings on that block was shot and killed. Now, Ms. Glover.

These Section 8 apartments have brought with them a wealth of problems. And Ms. Glover is just another victim of those problems. Two weeks ago my neighbors were held up at gunpoint a block from here as they went for a walk. It's bad enough when people are victims of violent crime in this city because poverty and bad schools have created problems in the city. These are tough problems to fix (although we seem to be making little progress on them). But when someone becomes a victim of crime because of careless city policy -- it is completely inexcusible. And there is some more serious talke about even more out-of-town developers wanting to come in and create more Section 8 housing in the area.

We must. Stop it. Now.

These projects are creating big red dots all over our crime maps.  While Ms. Glover's death was random in its choice of victim, the crime was anything but random. In fact, it was highly forseeable...every night as police cars sit in front of the buildings.

There are better ways. Better solutions. We shouldn't need more victims to prove it. It is time for our city leaders to really dig in to come up with better solutions to low-income housing than the policies of the early 1970s. We've learned a lot about success and failure of these programs since then and it's time to roll up our sleeves and come up with workable solutions instead of repeating the failures of the past and present. The neighborhoods, the people in the housing, and random people waiting for buses deserve better.

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

I wrote about this almost exactly 2 months ago, but it is increasingly evident that project-based section 8 housing is not a preferred way of handling low-income housing. I also specifically mentioned the specific problem on the 800 block of Armour that is the Bainbridge. On top of the Bainbridge, there is a second, smaller, Section 8 project based building across the street. 

At about 12:30 this morning, a man was found in the building dead from a gunshot wound.  A witness said he heard several gunshots and saw a man flea the building.

We need to look at low-income housing not as just a way to provide housing -- but as a way to provide people who need assistence with opportunities to get back on their feet and have a viable lifestyle. I've met a lot of nice people that live in the Homesteader - who are prisoners in their own homes. That shouldn't be the point of Section 8 housing.

This is NOT leading to success. It's leading to violence.

Creating modern day ghettos?

Two weeks ago, I wrote post about crime that was apparently a little controversial (apparently demographic statistics are controversial).

In my searching for some of the crime numbers, I spent a little time with the KCMO Quarterly Homicide Report. In a quick glance at the maps on the quarterly report, one thing instantly jumped out at me -- a huge red dot that indicated an "aggravated assault hot spot".

The arrow on the left is pointing to the hot spot that caught my eye. The spot is in my neighborhood, and has been a bit of a sore spot for us.

The site, basically the entire three blocks west of Troost on Armour, contains the Bainbridge Apartment building (pictured below).

Three years ago, the Bainbridge was cleared out for renovation. The buildings were remodeled and are beautiful on the outside. That all seems great.

The problem is that the apartment was renewed by the city into 200+ units of Section 8 apartments.

Let me stop here for a second and say that I don't necessarily have a problem with Section 8 housing. I do think that everyone deserves to have a roof over their head and sometimes, government assistance may be necessary. The current HUD policies for Section 8 housing allow for up to 20% of the all secion 8 housing to be "project based", and the other 80% or must be "tenant based". Tenant-based Sectoin 8 allows an individual to live virtually anywhere they want in the private sector (that is at market rate +20% or lower in price), with the individual paying 30% of their income and the government subsizing the rest. "Project-based" Section 8 designates entire apartment buildings or complexes for use for Section 8 (that all are below market rate). 

The Bainbridge, pictured to the left, is a project-based Section 8 building.

Doing large-scale, project-based Section 8 housingdoes not benefit anyone.

The whole idea is very archaic -- based all the way back to when Section 8 housing was formed in the 1930s. Think about it, we would never dream of fencing off a 10-block area of the city and designating that as an area for Section 8 housing. The very idea harkens back to the days of creating "ghettos".  No one benefits from that.  Putting the ghetto all in one building does not change the concept, it is just a form of verticle segregation.

I've talked to many of the residents who live there when we're out on our walks. Many of the people who live in these units are great people, nice people, who are just trying to get by after life has dealt them a tough blow: health problems for them or a spouse that bankrupted them and kept them out of work, a husband that was the bread-winner getting killed or leaving the family, a home that burned down without the proper insurance, etc. But the good people that are there are being held hostage by the people are using the housing to deal drugs and other crimes.

Not long ago we talked with a grandmother who no longer feels comfortable having both of her grandchildren over at the same time, because she doesn't feel like she can keep a close enough eye on both of them at the same time to prevent something bad from happening. The large number of low-income people, in such a small area, has created too much crime for her to feel comfortable spending time with her own grandchildren.

The idea that concentrations of Section 8 housing increases crime is hardly a new one. At least one recent study in Memphis, while somewhat controversial, links Section 8 housing to crime.

And yet, just 3 years ago, Kansas City, MO renewed 300+ units of Section 8, all in one building -- a 1930s notions - in spite of evidence that is not good for the residents or the neighborhood.

So when I saw the big red dot on the Bainbridge, I took notice. I wasn't surprised mind you, as it is commonplace to see police cars parked out in front of the building. But I was struck by it. So I wondered, what other big red dots were large pockets of Section 8 housing?  So I spent the next couple of weeks driving around visiting big red dots on the map, and doing searches looking for apartment buildings and complexes that appeared to be project-based Section 8 housing.  I won't guarantee that this is 100% accurate or 100% inclusive, But here is the patrol zone crime map (the red dots indicate aggrevated assault hot-spots) and the arrows point to the ones that I have identified as being centered over project-based Section 8 housing:

Um, yeah.

One other note on this, it does appear that at least a couple of the dots are over hospitals -- which may mean that the crime is actually getting reported at the hospital and going on the map where the crime is reported, and maybe not where the crime occurred. But at least 7 of the concentrations appear to be at Section 8 hosuing complexes. 

My point of all of this isn't to say we should get rid of Section 8 Housing. However, we do need to re-evaluate the idea of project-based programs. Project-based Section 8 is the equivelent to creating a modern-day ghetto.

Doing this does not benefit the good people that live there that feel like hostages in their own homes.

And it certainly appears to be making for increased police work.

Kansas City has problems with crime. All cities do. But we really need to re-look at government policies that are helping to CREATE problems - specifically HUD policies that not only allow for, but mandate, ghetto-ing low-income people into certain areas of the city.

Two other notes on this: 

1) Since I'm sure I'll hear this. This is not a case of someone who is trying to be NIMBY. I have no problem living in neighborhoods with lower-income people. If I minded, I'd move to South Overland Park or Lenexa or something. I love the diversity, but don't love the crime. I'm trying to not mandate moving the problems to ANYONE'S neighborhood. I'm trying to spread out the housing to virtually assure that some poor people will live in most of the city's neighborhoods -- which is a better scenerio for everyone and not create problems for anyone.

2) The problems seem to be 100% "Family" based section 8 projects. The correlation does not apply to apartment buildings designated as Section 8 "elderly" or "medical".