Sponsors: Mayor Lucas, Mayor Pro Tem Parks-Shaw, Councilwoman Bough, Councilman Bunch, Councilman Curls, Councilman Duncan

Summary: Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and five City Council members from across three Council districts have introduced legislation to ban source of income discrimination in Kansas City.

This ordinance would ban housing discrimination based on how tenants pay their rent and would extend housing protections to seniors on social security, veterans receiving disability compensation, workers who earn tipped wages, students receiving stipends, and poor families using housing vouchers. This ordinance also allocates $1 million to establish a Landlord Risk Mitigation Fund Pilot Program. The ordinance is supported by more than 30 community groups, unions, neighborhood associations, service providers, and housing providers.

This ordinance was passed in June 2024.

Who this protects:

• Veterans receiving VA Disability Compensation
• Victims of domestic violence receiving rental assistance vouchers
• Seniors on Social Security or disability
• Students using college stipends
• Workers who earn tipped wages
• Union workers on strike
• Landlords who experience damages to units or increased administrative costs

Myths vs. Facts

Myth: This ordinance bans landlords from running background checks, credit checks, or criminal history checks.

Fact: This ordinance does not prohibit landlords from screening tenants based on criteria such as background checks or credit checks. The ordinance simply requires landlords to consider additional mitigating factors, such as personal references, the recency and severity of adverse events in their history, and actions taken to remedy some of those adverse events before they decide on someone's application.

Myth: This ordinance forces landlords to accept all vouchers, regardless of the amount of the voucher, and require landlords to rent to tenants who can’t cover the full cost of rent.

Fact: This ordinance does not force anyone to do anything. It does not require landlords to accept vouchers that do not cover the total amount of rent. This ordinance prohibits landlords from using a tenant’s lawful source of income as the sole basis for rejecting their application. If a tenant meets all of a landlord’s screening criteria, including the ability to pay the full rent, the landlord cannot reject them because of the lawful source of their rent money.

Myth: This ordinance will kill the rental market.

Fact: Over 120 cities and 20 states nationwide have banned source of income discrimination. Examples of states with these bans include Colorado, Illinois, Oklahoma, Utah, and Virginia. Examples of cities with these bans include Phoenix, AZ; Lawrence, KS; Minneapolis, MN; Columbus, OH; St. Louis, MO; and Webster Groves, MO.

Myth: This ordinance was written by tenant advocacy groups without consulting anyone else.

Fact: This ordinance is the product of months of work – both with tenants and landlords – collaborating with the Mayor’s office and other members of Council, the Law Department, the Health Department, CREO, the Housing Department, and 30 other community groups, unions, neighborhoods, service providers, and housing providers. This policy was based on best practice policies from peer cities across the country.

Myth: Landlords will lose months of income while waiting for required Housing Authority inspections.

Fact: Housing Authority inspections are generally scheduled within two weeks of application and completed within four weeks of application. The Housing Authority will provide back pay to the Landlord for any additional delays due to the completion of the Housing Authority Payment contract.

Myth: Housing Authority inspections are overly burdensome and will require Landlords to make unnecessary improvements.

Fact: Housing Authority inspection requirements match that of Healthy Homes which provide regulations for minimum health and safety standards required to maintain a rental permit in Kansas City. Put simply, every unit with a permit in Kansas City should already be able to pass inspection from the Housing Authority.

View the Source of Income Discrimination FAQ