KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly issued another ban on evictions and foreclosures due to the COVID-19 pandemic Monday, and while it is progress, tenant rights groups are pushing for more permanent overhauls in the housing system.
One group said people are still in the same situation they were in back when the pandemic began.
"I already know at least three people who have been evicted by this point," said Tatyana Younger, an organizer with Rent Zero Kansas. "While this is an amazing step in right direction, it still feels too little, too late, and it doesn't go as far out as it could."
Younger said the eviction moratorium shouldn't end here.
"Our perfect envisioning is that rent would be canceled until the end of the pandemic, that there's also rent-free so that debt isn't being collected," Younger said.
As of June, the unemployment rate in Kansas was 7.5 percent. In Wyandotte County, it was almost 10.5 percent, which fell from 14.9 percent in April and 14.1 percent in May.
"We need millions of dollars infused into these neighborhoods or we need to create new systems altogether," said Dustin Hare, an organizer with the Community Health Council of Wyandotte County.
Hare said statistically in some neighborhoods, like the northeast, every other person was already in poverty before the pandemic, so a ban on evictions is an obvious need.
"We need more relief packages for sure over the next several months," Hare said. "The unemployment benefit has been huge for people; it's been the only thing not making this a massive crisis."
Kelly said Monday if Congress does not act on another stimulus package that includes housing protections, she will sign another eviction and foreclosure moratorium.
