KC Tenants is a left of center activist organization in the Kansas City area. The group mobilizes its membership of renters as activists to lobby for changes to laws and policies in the city, ranging from a renter’s bill of rights, to taking funds from the police department to pay for a low-income housing trust fund. ^{1 2}

The group has an affiliated political arm that has endorsed candidates for the city council. ³

Finances

In fiscal year 2021, KC Tenants reported $971,931 in revenue, $937,197 of which came from contributions and grants. It had $304,627 in expenses, of which $284,031 was spent on employee salaries and benefits. It ended the year with a surplus of $667,304 and the same amount in net assets. ⁴

Organization Philosophy

KC Tenants is an openly left-of-center group that states it is an “anti-racist” organization with a goal of achieving tenant “liberation.” ⁵

Programs

Membership

KC Tenants bills itself as a union for renters. As of October of 2022, the group was reported to have 4,300 members who regularly held meetings to plan activist events. A New York Times reporter noted that white men at such meetings began any statements they would make with “acknowledgements of privilege. ⁶

Protests

KC Tenant activists regularly engages in disruptive protests to support their lobbying and to cause chaos in legal proceedings against tenants. This has included chaining themselves to courthouse doors, joining online court hearings and disrupting the proceedings, and protesting outside the home’s of judges. The latter has gone so far as to involve spray painting vulgar graffiti on the property of a circuit court judge. ^{7 8}

Lobbying

KC Tenants has advocated for a wide array of left of center proposals. These include proposing that $22 million be diverted from the Kansas City police budget annually, combined with increased taxes on local developers for the purpose of establishing a multi-million dollar trust fund to fund low-income housing and provide money to low-income renters. ⁹

KC Tenants was also involved in Kansas City establishing a “right to counsel” program that will pay for any resident facing eviction to have a lawyer. ¹⁰ It was similarly involved in establishing a “tenant’s bill of rights” in the city that landlords must provide to tenants. ¹¹

An attorney who represents landlords in Kansas City stated that as a result of KC Tenants actions the cost of evicting a tenant has increased fivefold and that the process now regularly drags on for three months to a full year, rather than the usual one month before. ¹²

KC Tenants Power

In 2022 KC Tenants launched a 501(c)(4) partner organization called KC Tenants Power in order to lobby for its agenda on the city and state level and to support political candidates. ¹³ Notably, in 2023, four of the six city council members who were endorsed by the group, which included an associated activist leader, won their races. ¹⁴

Leadership

Tiana Caldwell is the president of KC Tenants. She cofounded the organization with current executive director Tara Raghuveer after meeting the later at a presentation on her research on housing evictions, which Caldwell herself had experienced. ¹⁵

Tara Raghuveer is the executive director of KC Tenants. She grew up in Kansas and while attending Harvard University began researching policy issues around evictions. Upon graduation she did policy presentations on her research and connected with activists to form KC Tenants. ¹⁶

1. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, Accessed December 11, 2023, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.
2. Kite, Allison. “‘Today Kansas City Made History’: City Council Adopts Tenants Bill of Rights.” The Kansas City Star., December 13, 2019. Accessed December 11, 2023.  https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article238315408.html.
3. Webster, Betsy. “KC Tenants Leader Wins Council Seat.” Https://www.kctv5.com, June 21, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.kctv5.com/2023/06/21/kc-tenants-political-arm-celebrates-wins-election-night/.
4. KC Tenants, Return from a Private Foundation (990) Part I, 2021.
5. “About.” KC Tenants. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://kctenants.org/about.
6. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, sec. Business. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.
7. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, Accessed December 11, 2023, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.
8. Herschander, Sara. “Foundations Buoy a New Movement of Renters’ Activism.” AP News, June 21, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023.  https://apnews.com/article/kc-tenants-kansas-city-renters-philanthropy-ab9ad0bffbee6cb399530322a2d3e587.
9. Morris, Frank. “KC Tenants Proposes $30 Million Affordable Housing Trust Fund, With Money Diverted From Police Budget.” KCUR – Kansas City news and NPR, June 28, 2021. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.kcur.org/housing-development-section/2021-06-28/kc-tenants-proposes-30-million-affordable-housing-trust-fund-with-money-diverted-from-police-budget.
10. “Right to Legal Counsel for Kansas City Tenants Facing Eviction to Start June 1.” Kansas City, May 27, 2022. Accessed December 11, 2023.  https://www.kcmo.gov/Home/Components/News/News/1882/16.
11. Kite, Allison. “‘Today Kansas City Made History’: City Council Adopts Tenants Bill of Rights.” The Kansas City Star., December 13, 2019. Accessed December 11, 2023.  https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article238315408.html.
12. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, Accessed December 11, 2023, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.
13. Mansaray, Mili. “KC Tenants Announces Sister Organization Focused on Building Political Power.” The Kansas City Beacon, October 14, 2022. Accessed December 11, 2023.  http://kcbeacon.org/stories/2022/10/14/kc-tenants-power/.
14. Webster, Betsy. “KC Tenants Leader Wins Council Seat.” Https://www.kctv5.com, June 21, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.kctv5.com/2023/06/21/kc-tenants-political-arm-celebrates-wins-election-night/.
15. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, Accessed December 11, 2023,  sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.
16. Dougherty, Conor. “The Rent Revolution Is Coming.” The New York Times, October 15, 2022, Accessed December 11, 2023, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/15/business/economy/rent-tenant-activism.html.