Johnson County suburbs like Prairie Village need to “opt in” to being part of a metrowide solution to rising housing costs and inequities in home ownership.
That was one of the key messages delivered at a special panel discussion on housing in Prairie Village Sunday, which continued the city’s ongoing conversations around attainable housing and diversity.
Why it matters: The panel discussion, entitled “Housing in Prairie Village—Past, Present and Future” was part of an almost two-year-long effort by the city of Prairie Village to address housing and diversity issues.
In surveys and in public meetings in recent years, Prairie Village residents — and Johnson Countians more generally — have consistently reported housing costs as one of their biggest concerns.
The data: Sunday’s panel discussion used some recent data both on race and housing.
Nearly 95% of Prairie Village residents are white, according to 2020 Census data.
At the same time, Kristy Baughman, director of education and planning for United Community Services of Johnson County, told attendees that half of Prairie Village renters are cost burdened by housing — meaning more than 30% of their income goes to rent.
These issues are prevalent throughout the entire county and region, too.
In Johnson County, 86% of residents are white, according to 2020 Census data. Baughman said Johnson Countians reported housing as their biggest problem during a 2017, grant-funded effort to identify a health equity issue.
City, county efforts: UCS released a “housing toolkit” last summer to help cities advocate for more affordable housing. (Details about the housing toolkit can be found in previous Post coverage here.)
Meanwhile, Prairie Village created a diversity task force, which ultimately became a permanent committee, in 2020 to find ways to retain and attract residents of color.
The city also created an ad-hoc housing committee that’s been meeting for the last six months. Housing was the focus of the city’s first-ever Martin Luther King, Jr. event in February, as well.
The panel: Aside from Baughman, the discussion featured three other panelists — Andrew Gustafson, Johnson County Museum curator of interpretation; Keith Johnson Jr., a Kansas City real estate agent with a Prairie Village brokerage; and Jacob Wagner, an associate professor of urban planning and design at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and founder of Center for Neighborhoods.
Panelists discussed a number of topics such as the city’s history with developer J.C. Nichols and redlining, racist covenants that are outdated but still on the books, the tear down/rebuild phenomenon and how to move forward.
A full video of the panel will be posted to the city’s Facebook page here.
What’s next: Conversations about diversifying both the city’s population and housing stock will continue. This includes the housing committee presenting its recommendations to the city council this spring or summer, Mayor Eric Mikkelson said.
This summer, UCS also plans to begin recruiting Johnson Countians to be “housing advocates,” who will work to develop unique solutions to address the county’s housing issues, Baughman said. Those interested in learning more about this effort or in becoming a housing advocate can contact Baughman via email at kristyb@ucsjoco.org.
Key quote: “When there’s been efforts affirmatively furthering fair housing and some of the other efforts, you get the big cities — [like Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas] — and oftentimes the bigger cities in Kansas don’t jump in and participate in Johnson County in those regional efforts to come up with regional solutions to regional problems,” Wagner said. “What we need to do is we need to opt in. At every moment there’s a chance for this city and this county to opt into being part of the solution, that’s what we need to do.”
