Mayor Quinton Lucas proposes major rollback of Kansas City’s landmark affordable housing policy

Kansas City may gut its affordable housing policy under an ordinance being considered by the City Council.

The proposal would be a major rollback of the city’s affordable housing ordinance, passed in 2021, which requires any developer getting a tax break to “set aside” 20% of housing units at affordable rents.

If a developer doesn’t want to provide those affordable housing units, they have the option of paying an “in lieu” fee to the city’s affordable housing trust fund.

That trust fund, bolstered by a $50 million investment from taxpayers in 2022, has provided funding for more than 2,400 affordable housing units.

The proposed change would slash that in-lieu fee by 95% — from $100,000 per unit to just $5,000.

The proposed ordinance, introduced by Mayor Quinton Lucas, is part of an effort to bring the developer requirements at city-run economic development agencies in line with the practices at the Port Authority of Kansas City, or Port KC.

Read more from the Missouri Business Alert.