Housing Archives – The Kansas City Defender

WE HAVE A DEAL: North Lawn Tenants Win It All

By Ryan S. ● Housing ● June 12, 2026

Three years of organizing brought a Chicago landlord to a table in the Historic Northeast. Two hours and three languages later, the tenants of North Lawn walked out with frozen rents, erased debt, repairs on deadline, and a signed path to owning their homes.

Latest in Housing

Three Years After Historic Victory, North Lawn Tenants Triple Their Union and Return for Their Slumlord

By Ryan S. ● Housing ● May 21, 2026

Three years ago, North Lawn tenants forced Wiser KC LLC into the most protective housing agreement in Missouri history. Then, the landlord broke it.

Kansas City Winter Resources for the Unhoused: What to Do and Where to Go When Temperatures Drop

By Tiffany Watts ● Housing ● December 22, 2025

As winter settles in, hundreds of Kansas Citians are facing the cold without shelter. This guide pulls together shelter, food, medical, and warming resources so people living outside, families navigating homelessness, and those looking to help know where to turn.

Fear Over Facts: Mizzou’s President Puts Columbia’s Unhoused Residents at the Center of a Public Safety Debate

By Kayla Sydnor ● Campus Life ● December 19, 2025

University of Missouri President Mun Choi has framed homelessness as a public safety issue following a local student’s killing. But crime data shows no link between homelessness and violent crime. Advocates say that rhetoric has fueled harassment of Columbia’s unhoused community.

Bowen Tower Rent Strike: 26 Evictions and a Slumlord’s War on Black Elders

By Ryan S. ● Housing ● October 23, 2025

How a California slumlord unleashed a campaign of terror against Raytown’s Black elders—and how they’re fighting back with the city’s first rent strike

VICTORY OVER SLUMLORDS: After 248 Days, KC Tenants Wins Largest Rent Strike in KC History

By Ryan S. ● Justice ● June 5, 2025

Inside the Tenant Revolt That Forced Landlords to Their Knees in Kansas City

KCATA and KCPD are Forcing Discomfort over Dignity for Community Bus Riders

By Lynnie Holl ● Kansas City ● December 24, 2024

KCATA and KCPD come under scrutiny for removing public benches at bus stops, sparking criticism for undermining community efforts.

Scorching, Extreme Temperatures & Flooding: Tenants at Quality Hill Apartments Face Dangerous Conditions As Rent Strike & Crisis Continues

By Lynnie Holl ● Housing ● November 14, 2024

Amid the longest rent strike in Kansas City’s history, tenants at Quality Hill Apartments are confronting life-threatening, extreme conditions. Residents report suffocating indoor heat in some units—soaring past 85°F—and no heat in others as temperatures drop.

KC Tenants Makes Monumental Statement with First-Ever Rent Strike

By Lynnie Holl ● Housing ● October 1, 2024

KC Tenants initiates a groundbreaking rent strike in protest of deplorable living conditions and demanding national rent caps.

KC Slumlord Neglect Leads to Black Baby’s Death from 8th Story Window; Rage Mounts After Parents Unjustly Jailed

By Ryan S. ● Housing ● August 1, 2024

In a horrifying injustice, a Black baby fell to death from an 8th story window at Independence Towers after months-long slumlord neglect. Community demands justice after grieving parents are jailed and criminalized.