The Greater Kansas City Regional Housing Partnership recently launched to serve as a central entity to research, coordinate resources and act on the critical issue of housing affordability and instability in the region.
RHP came together with the support of founding partners Mid-America Regional Council and LISC Kansas City and aims to deliver a housing system that supplies attainable quality housing options for area residents.
“Everyone – Kansas City, Overland Park and other surrounding communities – was looking at this complex problem of affordable housing and how best to deal with it,” said Emmet Pierson, Jr., president, Community Builders of Kansas City. “This coalition of not-for-profits and municipalities has a chance to make a difference by coming together to address the issue comprehensively and holistically.”
The RHP initiative has received funding to date from the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation, the Health Forward Foundation, the Hall Family Foundation, the Sunderland Foundation and others.
“Every municipality is trying to solve the problem of attainable housing on its own, but the problem is huge,” said Pierson. “It will be important to take the funds devoted to this coalition and leverage them, extend them from millions or tens of millions, to hundreds of millions in development to meet the RHP’s mission – to foster a thriving housing system that produces and sustains a supply of quality, diverse housing options.”
More information and resources such as a housing data hub, locator and data analysis as well as how to support the initiative can be found at https://kcrhp.org/.