Kansas City residents looking for affordable rental housing will soon be able to utilize a new housing locator website. The Housing & Community Development Department chose Emphasys Software to develop the forthcoming website through the City’s established request for proposals (RFP) process.

“The website will offer real-time, updated information to both tenants and landlords,” said Jane Pansing Brown, housing and community development director.

When fully implemented, the site will allow landlords to post available units and provide information regarding services at the property. With the goal encouraging housing stability, this website will make it easier for families to find the right home, ultimately decreasing the number of houseless families, including houseless youth. The implementation plan includes marketing and outreach strategies to promote the website and its benefits.

The City hopes to have the website operational by late summer or early fall.

This is one of many solutions the City is working on to address housing insecurity, affordable housing and issues facing our houseless community. This includes:

• Allocating $25 million to the City’s affordable housing trust fund that will incentivize the creation of affordable housing units and other housing options within larger otherwise market-rate multifamily development projects
• Distributing $20.6 million in emergency rental assistance funds to nearly 4,400 households in Kansas City
• Using community input to develop a “Vision for Housing” that outlines the plan to create 10,000 new affordable housing units by 2027
• Establishing a Housing and Community Development Department with the City’s first employees dedicated to homelessness prevention and support, tenant advocacy, and affordable housing creation and preservation
• Converting nearly 3,000 vacant lots and homes owned by the City’s Land Bank into affordable housing
• Creating a position in the H&CD Department for a homelessness prevention coordinator
• Turning two former hotels into permanent supportive housing and emergency transitional housing for those experiencing homelessness 
• Constructing affordable housing on city-owned property in creative ways, such as the plan to incorporate affordable housing units into the reconstruction of the Barney Allis Parking Plaza
• Finalizing a city policy detailing processes which will help unhoused persons relocate from encampments to safe facilities with supportive services
• Enacting an extreme weather plan that activates when the daytime high is below 32 degrees, or the overnight low is less than 20 degrees

This content is a press release from the City of Kansas City, Missouri.