Tag: Kansas

Thousands of Kansans face threat of eviction as pandemic exposes housing crisis

by Noah Taborda and Shelton Brown, Kansas Reflector

Topeka — Sheena Mooney has spent the past year without a job or a safety net living in a trailer park a few miles from Washburn.

Mooney lost her job at Frito-Lay in March 2020, a job she enjoyed, fell behind on her rent and was evicted that August. She applied for unemployment but did not qualify, and her eviction was subsequently approved between May 26, 2020, when the state’s eviction moratorium expired, and Aug. 17, 2020, when Gov. Laura Kelly’s new order went into effect.

“I don’t like telling people my business, you know. This was something that needed to be heard,” Mooney said. “How did this happen? How was I able to fall through the cracks and get no help?”

Mooney is one of the thousands who have been evicted or are facing the threat of eviction during the pandemic in Kansas. She joined Kansas housing advocates on a new episode of the Kansas Reflector podcast to discuss the realities of renting amid COVID-19.

Estimates from the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation indicate more than 27,000 Kansas are currently behind on their rent, and estimates from Zillow show about 14,600 renters are at risk of eviction.

Federal and state moratoriums have provided temporary relief for those who can prove they are unable to pay rent because of COVID-19 related circumstances, but the narrow scope has left many without protection. Even during the moratorium period, evictions proceeded in some areas.

Dave Patel, who comanages the Motel 6 in Topeka with his wife, said he has seen an influx of people staying at his hotel because of lost housing.

Vince Munoz, an organizer for the tenant advocacy group Rent Zero Kansas, said without substantive change, many more will be removed from their homes with nowhere to turn.

“Even those of us who do have a little bit of stability, we’re all just kind of teetering on the edge and we really deserve to be in a place as people where we’re not just one emergency or social issue away from losing our housing,” Munoz said.

One option available to both renters and landlords looking for relief is the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance program. The initiative led by the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation is intended to provide rent, utility and internet assistance to households experiencing hardship because of the pandemic through a joint tenant-landlord application process.

Whether it’s an unwillingness from landlords to collaborate or the slow processing pace of applications, Munoz said, the program is insufficient. Recent KHRC data shows 6,593 of 14,607 applicants have been served so far.

The U.S. Treasury last month said just 11% of the $46.5 billion approved by Congress for emergency rental assistance had been allocated. Of the $5.1 billion that was spent, $1.7 billion was doled out during July.

KHRC executives said they are processing applications in seven to 10 days.

Ryan Vincent, KHRC’s executive director, said the organization is seeking feedback to inform a new housing initiative, this time for homeowners. The Kansas Homeowner Assistance Fund, established by the American Rescue Plan Act, will aim to prevent the displacement of homeowners experiencing financial hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In less than a year, we’ve provided almost $50 million in emergency rental assistance to Kansas renters, landlords and service providers,” Vincent said. “We’re proud to have helped more than 15,000 Kansas households avoid eviction and remain stably housed during the pandemic, but we know our state’s housing needs don’t stop with tenants. Kansas homeowners: Help is on the way.”

Kansas Reflector stories, at kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/06/thousands-of-kansans-face-threat-of-eviction-as-pandemic-exposes-housing-crisis/.

Kansas AG aides attended ‘war games’ summit where group planned response to Biden win

More than 30 staffers in attorneys general offices around the country gathered in Atlanta for the September 2020 event

by Allison Kite, Kansas Reflector

Kansas City, Missouri — Two top aides in Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s office traveled last year to a summit where staffers of conservative attorneys general participated in “war games” to plan how they might respond to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Records obtained by Kansas Reflector show the two aides — Clint Blaes and Jeff Chanay — were approved to travel to Atlanta for a summit of senior staff members of attorneys general offices put on by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a group associated with the Republican Attorneys General Association. The group paid for the two aides’ expenses.

And while the travel authorization records from Schmidt’s office referred to the event as training, records obtained by a former Democratic candidate for attorney general in Missouri show the September event included a “huddle” referred to as “war games,” where attendees planned how they might respond if Donald Trump lost re-election. It’s not clear what discussions Blaes and Chanay participated in.

“32 AG Staff Members are huddled in Atlanta for a series of conversations planning for what could come if we lose the White House,” said Adam Piper, then the RLDF’s executive director, in an email addressed to “generals” on Sept. 24, 2020.

The Rule of Law Defense Fund was established in 2014 as a “forum for conservative attorneys general and their staff to study, discuss and engage on important legal policy issues affecting the states.” The organization has been criticized for its role in the runup to the Jan. 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol, the first time the building has been stormed since the War of 1812.

In a robocall, the organization gave out details on the timing and location of the march protesters took from the White House to the Capitol.

Schmidt distanced himself from those robocalls in the aftermath of the attack and condemned the riot. His spokesman, John Milburn, told the Kansas Reflector in January he had not participated in any decision-making with the group since August of 2020 when he stopped serving on its board. In an email last week, Milburn said Schmidt told the organization he was disappointed in the robocall.

In response to a Kansas Open Records Act request, Schmidt’s office provided a handful of emails showing two staffers were approved to attend the September event. While RLDF funded all their expenses, Schmidt’s office found their attendance would serve “a legitimate state purpose and interest,” meaning that if RLDF didn’t fund the trip, Schmidt’s office would have, according to an email from Chanay.

Chanay, chief deputy attorney general, and Blaes, director of communications, also were allowed to consider those days in Atlanta as working days and were not required to use vacation time for them.

Milburn described RLDF in exactly the words the organization uses on its website — but left out “conservative.”

“The purpose of the staff meeting in September was to discuss potential legal responses of state attorneys general offices to regulations or similar federal government actions that were likely to occur in a potential Biden administration, just as state attorneys general were active in defending the authority of states against unlawful federal power-grabs during the Obama-Biden administration,” Milburn said.

Kathleen Clark, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the wording of emails provided in response to the Missouri records request — describing war games as exercises in how to respond to the election if President Joe Biden won — raise questions about the accuracy of Milburn’s description.

Regardless, she said, the major issue is that RLDF is a “fundamentally partisan” organization.

“The whole point is that when government officials are acting in their official capacity, like the folks at the Missouri or Kansas attorney general’s office who, on government time, were attending this summit — they’re not supposed to be thinking about whether we lose the White House in the sense of President Trump or we Republicans or, for that matter, we Democrats,” Clark said.

Milburn didn’t respond to a follow-up email asking whether the “war games” exercise included any planning concerning how to contest the election.

The RLDF did not respond to a request for comment.

Elad Gross, a former Democratic candidate for attorney general in Missouri, acquired thousands of pages of documents related to Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s participation in the RLDF through a Missouri Sunshine Law request.

An identical request from Schmidt’s office in Kansas turned up far less communication.

In response to his sunshine request, Gross received an initial 90 pages of communications between Schmitt’s office and RLDF. Records showed more than 30 representatives from attorneys general offices met in Atlanta for “war games,” which Piper wrote would “hopefully … not have to be utilized in November.”

Gross said Schmitt’s office in Missouri is still supplying records, so there’s more analysis to be done.

“There’s no question that there was a pretty obvious coordinated effort between these different offices to challenge the election,” Gross said.

Both Schmitt and Schmidt joined a lawsuit by attorneys general seeking to overturn President Biden’s victory. It was quickly dismissed.

Kansas Reflector filed open records requests in March and May and asked for updates via email over the summer. KORA requires that public agencies provide an explanation and an estimate of how much time the records will take to produce if officials expect it to take longer than three days.

The 15 pages of records were supplied last week.

Max Kautsch, an open records attorney in Lawrence, called it “unfortunate” that the office fails to give requesters an approximate time at which their records requests will be fulfilled, as required by law.

“I don’t understand why the attorney general’s office cannot more promptly respond to KORA requests,” Kautsch said.

Kansas Reflector stories, kansasreflector.com, may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
See more at https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/08/kansas-ag-aides-attended-war-games-summit-where-group-planned-to-combat-biden-win/.

Kansas National Guard to help in Louisiana hurricane relief

About 280 members of the Kansas National Guard will deploy to Louisiana to help in hurricane relief, according to an announcement by Gov. Laura Kelly.

The soldiers and airmen will provide support in and around areas affected by Hurricane Ida. They are deploying as part of an emergency management assistance compact, a multistate agreement allowing states to send government aid to other states in emergencies.

“In times of crisis, Kansans have always stepped up to help out our fellow Americans – and today is no different,” Gov. Kelly said. “Today, I deployed Kansas National Guard Soldiers and Airmen to Louisiana to help those struggling in the areas affected by Hurricane Ida. We stand ready to provide relief for the impacted families.”

Approximately 280 soldiers and airmen will deploy for this mission, which is expected to last 21 days, including travel. The deploying soldiers and airmen are members of the Kansas Army National Guard’s 130th Field Artillery Brigade, Manhattan; 1st Battalion, 161st Field Artillery, Hutchinson; 1161st Forward Support Company, Wichita; 169th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, Olathe; 635th Regional Support Group, Wichita; 891st Engineer Battalion, Iola; and the Kansas Air National Guard’s 184th Wing, Wichita and the 190th Air Refueling Wing, Topeka. The Guardsmen will be taking engineering equipment such as skid steers, dump trucks, chain saws, and excavators. They will also be taking other equipment which includes generators, light medium tactical vehicles, high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles, and palletized load system trucks.

“This humanitarian mission is part of what the National Guard is all about,”Maj. Gen. David Weishaar, the adjutant general and director of the Kansas Division of Emergency Management said. “Citizen-soldiers and airmen supporting the civil authorities in time of trouble. It’s a mission we do well, are proud to do and one that we have asked our Guardsmen to do quite often the past 18 months. The efforts of these Kansas soldiers and airmen will give their Louisiana brothers and sisters in uniform much-needed relief and help the people affected by this disaster get back on their feet that much quicker.”