HAKC History
The Housing Authority
of Kansas City, Missouri (HAKC) was created on July 14, 1941
by City ordinance and mayoral appointment of a five-member Board
of Commissioners, in accordance with Missouri enabling legislation.
Plans and financial arrangements with the federal government for
development of two low-rent public housing complexes were immediately
initiated.
World War II intervened
however, and caused suspension of Housing Authority operations from
1942 until 1946. In 1946, the HAKC was reactivated to provide housing
for returning veterans. Under contract with the federal government
to operate the Veterans Temporary Housing Program, HAKC acted as
rental agent for newly constructed emergency housing projects for
a period of nearly nine years. The program was later expanded to
include low-rent units for families.
By 1965, the HAKC rental
inventory was comprised of Riverview Gardens (constructed in 1952),
Theron B. Watkins Homes (1954), Guinotte Manor (1954), Chouteau
Court (1959), Pennway Plaza (1960), Wayne Miner Court (1962), and
West Bluff (1964), totaling some 2200 units.
As federal policies shifted
to new concepts of leasing, acquisition and turnkey development
programs, HAKC also reoriented its activities. In 1967 and 1968,
200 units were leased from private owners for sublease to Authority
tenants under a rent-supplement program. From 1968 to 1970, 50 foreclosed
single family homes were purchased from the Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) and the Veterans Administration (VA) by the HAKC for lease
to public housing tenants.
Proposals from developers
for turnkey housing were requested, and Brush Creek Towers, a high-rise
for the elderly, and Dunbar Gardens were completed under this program
in 1972. Heritage House, a former downtown Kansas City hotel, was
rehabilitated for the elderly in 1973.
The rehabilitation and
modernization of existing structures became a priority for the HAKC
in the mid-1970s. HAKC obtained nearly eight million dollars for
modernization of HAKC housing stock between 1975 and 1980. In 1978
and 1979, another 50 single-family houses were acquired and rehabilitated
for rental by low income families.
Lounneer Pemberton Heights,
a high-rise for elderly residents, was completed in 1981. Mr. Pemberton,
for whom the development was named, served as an HAKC commissioner
for 14 years.
For the next decade,
a succession of executive directors oversaw the Authority. Tenants
became dissatisfied with the condition of what were formerly well-maintained
units and sued in 1993 in federal court to hasten the rehabilitation
of one of the older developments, Theron B. Watkins. In 1994 the
United States of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) declared the
HAKC a "troubled agency." Also in 1994, Federal Judge
Dean Whipple named Jeffrey K. Lines, president of TAG Associates
of Kansas City, Inc., as Receiver for the HAKC. From that date until
present, in one of the more ambitious rehabilitation undertakings
in public housing history, more than $175 million has been spent
to rehabilitate the entire housing stock of the Housing Authority
of Kansas City, Missouri.
Click here
for more information on the transformation of the HAKC under receivership.
Summary
The Housing Authority of Kansas City's history began like other
public housing agencies, with the federal government's creation
and funding of nationwide public housing.
However, the Housing Act in 1937 drastically
changed the role of the federal government in public housing. This
act removed the federal Government from having direct ownership
and production of public housing and placed it under local control;
Congress then created the U.S. Housing Authority.
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