FRANKLIN COUNTY, Kansas — Julie Riggins has spent much of her adult life looking for housing to avoid being homeless.
Despite earning a paycheck during many of those years, Riggins rarely had enough money to afford rent for the housing that was available.
Although she was working at gas stations and restaurants, she often had to choose between paying for food or paying her rent. That resulted in her bouncing in and out of homelessness, and entering into shaky relationships with men just so she could live with them in their home.
That’s until she found an affordable housing option where rent was a percentage of her income, rather than a flat fee. That provided stability, and she and her late husband eventually moved to Kansas and were able to purchase a home about an hour outside of the Kansas City metro.
“I was very blessed to be able to get into that apartment,” Riggins said, “because I think that's what really turned my life around.”
Riggins’ experience sheds light on what many homeless residents in Kansas are facing and contradicts some misconceptions many people hold.
Advocates working on the issue argue rising homelessness is driven by a housing shortage and low-income residents unable to afford rent. For instance, in Johnson County — the state’s most populous county — more than half of the people experiencing homelessness in 2024 were either employed or received some other type of income, like Social Security or disability checks.
That contradicts stereotypes that homelessness is mainly a behavioral health issue. Some state lawmakers have pointed to mental health and substance use when discussing how to address homelessness.
Rita Carr, director of community planning for United Community Services of Johnson County, said relying on stereotypes is easy because it is one of the few versions of homelessness that people see in public — even though it is a minority of the homeless population.
“That is not the primary or the only cause of homelessness,” Carr said.
National advocates say Kansas and many other states have a housing shortage that’s part of the issue. Lawmakers have already enacted some affordable housing tax credits in recent years to try to boost the number of housing units available throughout the state.
More help is likely needed, and new ideas to overcome roadblocks, like some homeowners opposing affordable housing in their neighborhoods.
Rising homelessness
The federal count of the number of people without homes in Kansas grew by 179 this year compared to 2023. That’s a nearly 7% increase.
The Kansas Statewide Homeless Coalition report that counts the number of homeless individuals on a single night each year found 2,800 people in Kansas. The report counts both sheltered and unsheltered people.
Advocates have long pointed at a lack of housing as the driving force behind increasing homelessness.
Carr said that’s evident because many of the homeless people in Johnson County — 51% of those counted — are receiving some sort of income. That’s either through work or a fixed income, like Social Security or disability payments.
But that income still isn’t enough to find permanent housing in Johnson County. Carr said more often than not, the reason people lose housing is because they were evicted after they were unable to afford rent.
She said that often leaves people moving from place to place or staying in a hotel or car for long periods.
“Because they just can't get their income up to the amount that they need to get into even the cheapest place in this county,” Carr said
That was the reality for Riggins. She said there were times when she had three different part-time jobs at once, and still couldn’t afford rent.
After her first husband died, Riggins moved to Austin, Texas, with her two children. She spent about five years struggling to work and afford rent.
But that all began to change once she was invited to apply for the low-barrier housing that charged her rent based on a percentage of her income. She then met her second husband, who provided stability and safety for her family. They eventually moved to Kansas for his work, and they adopted more children. Her second husband died two years ago.
Riggins said her experience shows support for people without homes can lead to success. She now owns her own house on several acres of land just outside of Ottawa, Kansas.
“I want people to see that it is possible,” Riggins said, “and that you can get out of those depths of despair.”
Lack of housing
Like many other states, Kansas does not have enough housing, particularly for the lowest-income residents.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition, an organization that promotes policies to develop affordable housing, shows Kansas needs 52,000 housing units to fill that gap.
Sarah Saadian, senior vice president of policy and field organizing for the coalition, said the number represents how many affordable homes need to be added to the state, or how many current homes need financial support, like rental assistance, to remain in their current unit.
She said that shows many low-income workers in Kansas can’t earn enough to pay for the average cost of a living space.
“You would have to work 112 hours at minimum wage each week,” Saadian said, “just to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment.”
Some Kansans are spending up to 70% of their income on rent. Saadian said that forces them to make tough decisions, like whether paying rent is more important than eating or buying medication.
Saadian’s organization calls for more state and federal investment in affordable housing. She said developers and landlords won’t provide more affordable housing on their own because they would not be able to charge enough rent to cover the costs of building and maintaining the homes. She said that’s a market failure that needs government support to survive.
“The only way that (low-income) housing really gets built,” Saadian said, “is if there are sustained federal investments.”
Filling the gap
The state of Kansas has taken some action to try to increase the stock of affordable housing.
In 2022, lawmakers established a state tax credit for the development of affordable housing. The Kansas Housing Resources Corporation oversees the tax credits.
Emily Sharp, a spokesperson for the corporation, said the tax credit and other subsidies have been used to support the development of 4,800 affordable housing units in the state since 2022.
“We're finally starting to chip away at that underlying housing shortage,” Sharp said, “that we've been dealing with in Kansas for years.”
But some Kansas communities oppose that kind of development, like Johnson County’s Prairie Village. Ted Odell, a former city council member, and other residents said during a city meeting in 2022 that high-density housing would hurt the community.
“I urge each of you,” Odell told the city council at the time, “to look at all factors and not harm our current property values and neighborhood character.”
Over time, the issue became a wedge splitting the city and its residents. Some in the community were still trying to remove the mayor from office this summer.
Elsewhere, the city of Shawnee banned co-living rentals, which allow residents to rent a room and share a living space with others. And subsidized rent supports in Johnson and Wyandotte counties go largely unused because many apartments won’t take the vouchers.
Deputy Secretary Andrew Brown of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services told lawmakers in February that landlords are rejecting them.
“One of the biggest barriers that our teams have right now,” Brown said, “is finding landlords that are willing to accept housing vouchers.”
Sharp said housing can be a very sensitive topic for some communities. But she argues that providing enough quality affordable housing helps create healthy schools and strong public services.
“We know that this investment is worth it,” Sharp said.
State examination
Lawmakers have taken notice, and they will soon explore new solutions when a special committee meets this fall to analyze affordable housing.
The committee plans to look into the stock of housing under $200,000, the availability of rental housing, the availability of housing for people on fixed incomes and issues between tenants and landlords.
Republican state Representative Leah Howell of Derby will serve on the committee. She has also focused on addressing homelessness with a proposed bill that didn’t gain traction. It would have provided millions of dollars of funding for the construction of homeless shelters.
Howell said a lack of affordable housing not only hurts people who are homeless, but the state’s local economies.
“Businesses are struggling to hire people,” Howell said, “who need affordable, attainable places to live.”
The special committee plans to meet in November and will consider recommendations for the 2025 legislative session.
Dylan Lysen reports on social services and criminal justice for the Kansas News Service. You can email him at dlysen (at) kcur (dot) org.
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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