Policy Results
All Greater Kansas City LISC policy efforts have one goal in mind:

Bring new tools and funding to our

NeighborhoodsNOW neighborhoods.

Our goal is to build systemic change and we are making significant progress at the state, local and federal level.  Consider the following results which have been achieved since November 2006: 

In Missouri

• $275,000 in new State funding for Missouri NeighborhoodsNOW neighborhoods
• A new Code Enforcement statute which will assist the City of Kansas City, MO in setting up a new Code Enforcement structure
• State Housing Trust Fund partnerships have been forged, with a multi-year effort to double the Trust Fund underway
• New partnerships have been formed for a multi-year strategy for the Neighborhood Assistance Program that will provide resources for our neighborhoods
• A multi-year effort to create other new tools, such as a Land Assemblage Tax Credit, which will directly benefit both nonprofit and for-profit developers

In Kansas

• We’re developing statewide partnerships with other nonprofits and advocates through the Kansas State Housing Conference, which Greater Kansas City LISC is spearheading 
• Launched a multi-year effort to identify a funding source for the Kansas Housing Trust Fund
• A multi-year effort to roll-back the Eminent Domain bill of 2006, providing for eminent domain in blighted areas, reducing the compensation to a rational level, and moving the control from the State back to the local jurisdictions
• A multi-year Payday Loan effort which will aid the poorest of our neighborhoods by capping the percentage amount these entities can charge

 In Kansas City, Missouri

• Formed the KCMO Local Policy Network (March, 2007)
• Currently working on four significant efforts
• Code Enforcement
• Rental Licensing
• Land Usage
• Funding for neighborhood issues

At the Federal level

• Greater Kansas City LISC successfully worked wtih Senator Sam Brownback to advocate for a $1.2 million HUD Neighborhoods Initiatives appropriation for the three Kansas City, Kansas NeighborhoodsNOW communities.
• A $329,000 Department of Justice appropriation for neighborhood safety programs in Douglass-Sumner, St. Peter/Waterway and Downtown, KCK in Kansas were secured through the advocacy of Congressman Dennis Moore. 
• We are following current GSE Legislation, which recently passed the house and will create a $700,000,000 fund annually for housing.  This fund will be provided to the States, which may be used in State Housing Trust Funds, or other systems.

If you’d like to get involved in one of the regional policy networks, please contact Ashley Jones or by phone at 816-753-0055. 

Your involvement will help us build an even stronger voice

for community development.