LISC’s new report links corporate ownership of rentals in Kansas City area to more evictions and code violations

In May, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) released an in-depth report showing that large, corporate landlords are contributing to evictions and reducing housing quality in the Kansas City Metro area. LISC is a nonprofit community development finance initiative that supports community development projects through grants, loans and equity investments as well as technical and management assistance, all of which is guided and supported by robust research and data analysis.

The report, titled “Buying the Block: The Impact of Corporate Owners on Tenants, and How to Promote Community Accountability”, found that corporate owners of rental housing in Kansas City hold an increasing share of the rental market, with research consistently finding that corporate ownership leads to negative outcomes such as evictions and poor housing quality for tenants and communities. 

The report’s key findings include the following:

• In Kansas City, corporate landlords who own 100 units or more own about 80% of multifamily units in the region, while landlords with 250 units or more own 59%. 
• Corporate ownership is tied to a 3.7x increase in eviction filings and a 1.6x increase in code violations, even when controlling for neighborhood characteristics and demographics.
• Corporate owners from outside the region own almost half of the multifamily units in the region, and file for eviction at 3x the rate of local landlords.
• Government Sponsored Enterprise financing of large multifamily properties (through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans) is associated with negative tenant outcomes.

The report also comes with a detailed set of policy recommendations for improving tenant outcomes in KC. Among the report’s suggestions are creating public databases for tracking ownership, creating proactive inspection and code enforcement programs, strengthening tenant protections and supporting tenant organizing, and establishing funding streams for the creation and maintenance of community-controlled housing. 

This report is a valuable contribution to an ever-growing body of literature tying the increase in corporate landlords to worsening tenant outcomes.