KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Residents and their family members contacted Ryan after he commented on a Facebook post. Then, a Louisburg City Councilwoman reached out to Ryan to share her concern, leading to this story. If you are experiencing something similar, sharing your voice could be a step to a resolution. Share your story idea with Ryan.
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One issue dominated the Wednesday night kitchen table discussion at Lorna Olson's home. The chairs around the table were filled with neighbors experiencing the same, unpleasant thing.
The struggle with affordable living.
"You just don't get much raises on Social Security," Lorna Olson told the group.
"About 90% of our social security is now going toward paying rent," Nancy Davis said.
Pam Dowler reminded her friends about the increase in Medicare costs.
All the topics on their minds following a rent increase issued by their landlord, Commercial Management Group Inc., operated out of Topeka, Kansas.
"I was expecting an increase, but not a 30% increase," said Davis.
Wea Creek Apartments II are a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) property.
Emily Sharp is a representative from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation, the oversight agency for government subsidized housing projects in Kansas.
"The low income housing tax credit program is designed to provide affordable housing to tenants that qualify based on their income," she said.
The 35 housing units in Louisburg are considered income-restricted units. Housing providers received tax credits for providing these homes at below-market rates. The tax credits help offset the lower rent rate they can charge, and as a result, they need to keep these homes at an affordable rate for 30 years.
This project is about two years old and does not offer rental assistance.
"What we’re seeing is that housing affordability is a challenge across the board right now, it’s something we’re seeing across the state and across the country" Sharp said.
KSHB 41 News reporter Ryan Gamboa had multiple conversations with a corporate leader from the management company.
The property had to increase prices because of an increase in property taxes, insurance rates, and maintenance costs.
All residents, including Olson, currently pay $850 each month for a two-bedroom apartment. The new rent increase they received in late November stated it would increase $250 each month to $1,100.
Olson explained she receives around $1,400 in Social Security each month and it's her only income source.
Gamboa asked Sharp why the housing providers were able to increase rent.
She explained the program has fixed-income requirements on a percentage scale to be eligible based on the area's median income. With Louisburg's close proximity to the Kansas City area, the rates tend to be higher.
"The maximum at 60%, the maximum household income is $53,520 annually," she said. "That means if you’re at the 20% end, even the 60% end is still difficult to manage."
The maximum this property can charge a tenant is $1,504.
For Olson and her neighbor's financial situation, $1,100 is not affordable and neither is the maximum rate.
"They have raised the rent so much here that I don’t know if I am going to stay here," Olson told KSHB 41. "I just don’t know what I am going to do yet. That’s an awful place for an 81-year-old woman to be, not knowing where you’re going to be."
That's what got Louisburg City Councilwoman Tiffany Ellison's interest. She also sat on the City Council when developers approached the city for a sales tax abatement. KSHB 41 intends to dive deeper into this project and is waiting for records under the Kansas Open Records Act.
"This is important for the continuity of our community," Ellison said. "Generational relationships between aging grandparents and their children, great-grandchildren. That is something that Louisburg values. My concern for them as human beings is their quality of life. And the concern is that they’re going to be homeless in less than two weeks."
Residents like Olson have her kids to fall back on, but that isn't something she wants to do.
Other residents expressed to Gamboa they are considering living in their car if the rent increase continues to move forward.
The residents understand the cost to operate a business is increasingvand shared the same sentiment for their cost of living.
For Ellision, that reason isn't good enough. She's searching for some sort of resolution.
"You just ask like, the ethical question of everyone’s life, it might be legal but is it right?" Ellison said. "It’s criminal what’s happening, even if it’s not criminal yet. As a city council member, it concerns me because we don’t have resources here in town for homeless seniors. We don’t have a homeless shelter."
Ellison said as a City Council member she doesn't think she can do much.
"As a concerned community member, I would like to see what avenues exist at the state to help with this, to set caps if there aren’t caps already."
Jill VanLerberg is Lorna Olson's youngest daughter and is seeking a fair compromise, concerned at what's next for her mother.
"I know life isn’t fair, but my sister and I felt like we need to speak up for our mom," she said. "A 29% rent increase, I think we figured out, is a large, large increase. As people age, we just discard them. That’s sad to my sister and I. That we feel like our mother is just a number. An apartment number that they can just raise her rent, kick her out and get more money for it."
The property owner told Gamboa, the rents are $400 less than what they could have charged and these residents have lived between 18 months and two years with no rent increase.
"We just wish the communication with the corporate would’ve been better," added VanLerberg. "We would’ve went and looked around and go made other arrangements. We didn’t expect this. We were blindsided."
Ellison said she is concerned that a 30% rent increase is not helping achieve that goal for them [affordability]."
During Gamboa's visit to the Wea Creek Apartments II, seven residents came by to express their concern. Only so many people could be in this story.
Photojournalist Jake Weller was shooting video of the property and told Gamboa a handful of other residents expressed their concerns to him.
While they were not willing to be on camera, they expressed their gratitude for KSHB 41's interest in their story.
"My heart aches for all of us because we’re all in the same boat," added Olson. "When you’re 81, to not know where you’re going to go, it’s pretty frightening."
Commercial Management Group Inc. told KSHB 41 to contact their office and ask for Cathy Feriend to find other sources of affordable housing through other programs. The company's contact is 785-234-2882.
With Louisburg's rural nature, there aren't as many options.
Residents are hoping they can stay near their families.
For some of them, it's a town they've spent most of their lives in.
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