Navigating Jackson County's New SOI Discrimination Ban
Kansas City becomes the nation's leader in restricting tenant screening
For those in Kansas City, MO or those with rental properties here, you have almost heard of the new law prohibiting “discrimination” based on source of income that will go into effect in August. It is, as its supporters say, “the strongest source of income discrimination ban in the country.”
The main issue, however, is not that landlords have to accept Section 8 tenants and other vouchers, but the restrictions it places on screening. For some reason, KC Tenants and other tenant rights groups are dead set on forcing landlords to lease the unit next door to you to violent felons.
While the bill doesn’t ban tenant screening (despite an attempt to effectively do so in 2019), it does restrict it in a variety of ways. For example, the bill (which you can read here) prohibits landlords and managers “to refuse to rent to a tenant solely because of prior evictions or alleged damages” or “solely because of prior convictions or arrests.”
It also requires landlords and managers to evaluate “additional information provided.” The bill almost mandates a mushy subjective approach to tenant screening which all but necessitate violating fair housing laws, but that doesn’t seem to have crossed its supporters minds.
Regardless, we will all have to navigate the bill as well as possible to stay on the right side of the law. To that end, I would highly recommend watching the presentation put on by the KC Regional Housing Alliance featuring attorneys Dan Kelley and Doug Stone amongst others on how to approach this. It’s well worth your time.
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