Advancing Equitable Small-Scale Development

 Community Cares KC Coalition centers neighborhood leaders from the 3rd and 5th Council district neighborhoods of Kansas City, MO as well as local incremental developers, to provide the guiding perspective for our work. These are the community members that have lived experience with the social indicators of health that have led to lower life expectancy in their communities, including poor housing conditions, deferred maintenance on infrastructure and public spaces, and the majority of vacant residentially zoned land in the city. Structural racism and discrimination, including real estate redlining practices of the 1930s, led to these conditions. 

The goals of Community Cares KC Coalition’s work are to increase quality infill housing development, increase the funding and workforce for housing rehabilitation and stabilization, and increase support for small local developers and non-profit community development organizations to grow their capacity and expand their positive impact in Kansas City’s underserved communities thereby:

• Increasing opportunities for generational wealth creation
• Increasing family health and longevity through housing affordability, quality and security  
• Increasing community stability and safety through infill development   
• Increasing opportunities for children to receive consistent education and build social networks   
• Focusing solutions on systemic change to racial discrimination and inequality in housing opportunity   

Pat Jordan and Christina Hoxie have co-led the Community Cares KC Coalition since January 2024 and the Community Leaders group since June 2024. These groups merged in the Fall of 2024 with the neighborhood leaders at the heart of the group. In building this powerful group we sought advisors who were also seeking answers to “What does equitable access to quality housing look like?” and “How can each potential partner working on housing, from non-profit Community Development Corporations to each city’s Land Bank, to Mid-America Regional Council, align their goals, strategies and resources to support under-invested communities with housing that increases opportunities for generational wealth creation and focuses on systemic change to racial discrimination and inequality in housing opportunities?”