Douglas County tenant survey explores intersections of income, housing and violence
LAWRENCE — KU Life Span Institute researchers have partnered with area advocacy groups to explore local tenant experiences with housing and help the community understand how vulnerable people with low incomes can be when it comes to housing in Douglas County.
Survey results recently analyzed and reported by researchers at the University of Kansas Center for Community Health and Development documented the experiences of 1,051 Douglas County tenants on issues related to barriers to safe and affordable housing, evictions and safety. The project was an outcome of activities led by the LiveWell Sexual Violence Prevention Work Group, a local coalition of advocates, people with lived experience, government representatives and KU researchers.
Residents who participated in the survey helped illuminate local experiences with housing availability, housing quality, discrimination, safety and barriers to obtaining housing. Findings highlighted in the report (PDF) included housing cost burden, power imbalances and safety concerns. Of tenants who said they had been evicted from their housing, almost half reported an income below $21,400. Those evictions overlapped with reported power imbalances, feelings of lack of safety, and reports of unresolved maintenance requests. Renters cited issues such as being afraid to report maintenance issues for fear of retaliation.
KU researcher Christina Holt, assistant director at the Center for Community Health and Development at the KU Life Span Institute, said that renters described numerous barriers to safe and affordable housing, as well as threats and violence they experienced.
“The stories that came in through those surveys were just really heartbreaking — and compelling and insightful,” Holt said.
The survey results highlighted by Holt included 90 respondents reporting that their landlord had verbally harassed them, called them names, threatened or intimidated them.
“The majority of these respondents had an annual household income less than $35,600, and 12 respondents reported that their landlord, or a representative of their landlord, had physically harassed or assaulted them,” she said.
The report generated from the survey emphasized the need to gather information about the experiences of renters in Douglas County to inform work aimed at reducing sexual violence.
The work was funded through support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, which provided funding to the Sexual Trauma and Abuse Care Center to help facilitate local efforts.
In addition to the Care Center, the LiveWell Douglas County Sexual Violence Prevention Work Group includes advocates and staff from LiveWell Douglas County, Lawrence Public Library, the city of Lawrence, Douglas County, Lawrence Tenants, the Willow Domestic Violence Center, Lawrence Community Shelter and KU, among others.
The work group advocates for tenant policies that make housing more affordable or accessible, increasing housing development, preventing housing discrimination based on income, and establishing tenant rights to counsel and protection.
The tenant survey project is among several initiatives in Kansas, including the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, that receive funding from the CDC and partner with researchers in the Center for Community Health and Development for technical assistance and evaluation.
Other CDC-funded subgrantees working to prevent sexual violence in Kansas include Jana’s Campaign and Options serving Ellis, Russell and Thomas counties in northwest Kansas; the Midwest Native Coalition for Justice and Peace supporting efforts for the five tribes and Native communities throughout the state; and the Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault (MOCSA) in Wyandotte County.
Technical assistance for the projects includes support with community assessments, project planning support and guidance, outreach and engagement with key community groups, and identifying long-term indicators and benchmarks for systems change, Holt said. CCHD researchers also provide support for using data for quality improvement, reporting on grant-funded projects to the CDC, presenting findings to national conferences and help disseminating information.