About Regional Housing Partnership (RHP)

The Greater Kansas City Regional Housing Partnership is currently funded by the generous support of the Marion and Henry Bloch Family Foundation, the Health Forward Foundation, the Hall Family Foundation and the Sunderland Foundation.

Background

There is growing consensus the Kansas City region faces an affordable housing challenge only exacerbated by the global pandemic. For some, it has reached crisis levels.

Community leaders and research recognize that housing integrally connects to health factors, lifespan, student performance, job opportunities, wealth building and stability. For many, high housing costs preempt homeownership, threaten financial security and impede the ability to meet changing family circumstances. When race and ethnicity are factored in, people of color experience disparities across all these aspects. For everyone, the supply of quality housing, location and pricing limits our region’s ability to advance economic growth and opportunity. Before the Regional Housing Partnership, no comprehensive framework addressed this regional issue to build from the work underway at the local level.

Convened and supported by Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) and LISC Greater Kansas City, the Regional House Partnership’s mission is to foster a thriving housing system that produces and sustains a sufficient supply of quality, diverse housing options to meet the challenge. The housing system would be one in which people from every sector, and those impacted by this challenge, can join together to educate themselves about the problems and issues, and to explore, advocate and execute innovative approaches on financing, capacity and policy. By building relationships and gaining a common understanding of both problems and possible solutions, the Regional Housing Partnership will encourage and support actions to address these regional housing challenges.

Where the Regional Housing Partnership work is focused

The focus of the Regional Housing Partnership work is within the Kansas City region and includes working with communities, institutions, and organizations within the following nine-counties:

  • Cass County, Mo.
  • Clay County, Mo.
  • Jackson County, Mo.
  • Johnson County, Kan.
  • Leavenworth County, Kan.
  • Miami County, Kan.
  • Platte County, Mo.
  • Ray County, Mo.
  • Wyandotte County, Kan.

About LISC

LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation) is a national community development nonprofit and financial institution with a local office in Kansas City that has worked for 40 years to build the capacity of local community development corporations (CDCs). LISC is the nation’s largest community development support organization serving urban and rural areas in 50 states. With residents and partners, LISC forges resilient and inclusive communities of opportunity across America –great places to live, work, visit, do business, and raise families. As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), LISC invests in new housing, grocery stores, health centers, athletic fields, early childhood centers, community projects, retail, and more in historically disinvested neighborhoods across the country. LISC is an “intermediary” with strong community partnerships that connects hard-to-tap public and private resources with underinvested places and people working to access opportunities every one of us deserves.

About MARC

MARC is a nonprofit association of city and county governments and the metropolitan planning organization for the bistate Kansas City region. It has served this role in the region for 50 years. Governed by a Board of Directors made up of local elected officials, MARC serves nine counties and 119 cities. MARC provides a forum for the region to work together to advance social, economic and environmental progress. MARC promotes regional cooperation and develops innovative solutions through leadership, planning and action.

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