What Can Kansans Do About Abandoned Housing? Sue the Owners, for One

A two-story house, pointy at the top and painted red like a child’s drawing, is in the spotlight in Leavenworth. It stands out for its warm color, popping against the foliage wrapping it. Just under its peak, a large yellow butterfly hangs from a shingle.

Matching the black, barnesque door are dark holes where windows used to be. The siding and shutters are peeling. Boards cover upper-floor windows and have been up long enough to grow mold. The vegetation surrounding the building threatens to swallow it whole.

The nicknamed “Butterfly House” isn’t known today for its storybook facade; it’s an example of a big problem plaguing Kansas: abandoned, dilapidated buildings rotting in communities in desperate need of affordable housing.

The so-called “Butterfly House” could become a rehabbed home for low-income tenants if the litigation is successful. Courtesy of: Amy Willcott

Knowing this, members of the Kansas Housing Advocacy Network decided to experiment.

Depaul Leavenworth Attainable Housing, Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City and United Community Services of Johnson County have come together to test the latitude of Kansas statutes regarding abandoned housing.

The test case (in which the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth have agreed to be the nonprofit plaintiff) involves the butterfly house and two others. How? By suing the owners. Neighborhood Legal Support of Kansas City, a Missouri-based nonprofit, is spearheading the litigation efforts. The group has provided legal services to acquire and rehabilitate abandoned properties across the state line, turning them into quality housing for low-income families by utilizing the Missouri Abandoned Housing Act.

When a network member suggested that Kansas needed a similar legislative provision, Katie Killen, an attorney in Kansas City, said such legislation already existed.

“I was like, ‘I just don’t think anybody’s using it or testing it. I think we really just need to find somebody and a community that would be interested in seeing how a case could go and learn from that process,’” said Killen, the director of advocacy and community collaboration for Habitat for Humanity of Kansas City.

The Kansas law sets out a thorough process to notify the last known property owners and hold a court hearing at which a judge decides whether the property meets the state’s definition of abandonment. For residential real estate, that means, among other things, that taxes haven’t been paid for at least two years and it’s been unoccupied for at least 90 days.

If the litigation involving the butterfly house and the other two parcels is successful, Leavenworth Attainable Housing will take the houses into its inventory.

Many abandoned homes in Leavenworth are more than just a lost opportunity – they grow into nuisances. Dilapidated homes often turn into a weedy, trash-strewn mess that attracts squatters. They can be both an eyesore and a safety concern.

Why Leavenworth?

The city of about 37,000 (and host to Fort Leavenworth, an Army post) has a “growing situation” with homelessness and housing prices.

“Anywhere you go, there’s a homeless problem. If you go to a small rural town and you don’t see it, it’s still there; you just don’t see it,” said Chris Leach, the housing support specialist at Attainable Housing. “We have the fort that kind of drives housing prices up. It (the city) has a large percentage of rentals. North Leavenworth used to be this thriving middle-class community, and now a lot of the houses have become dilapidated, and nobody’s doing repairs on them. There’s a lot of empty lots as well.”

Leach added that housing agencies in the city are forced to fulfill needs by utilizing existing housing stock, as the city’s geographical constraints (the Missouri River to the east, the fort to the north, city limits on the south) make it very difficult to build new housing developments.

That tension, complimented by willing, experienced partners, brewed up a perfect time and place to experiment with laws to reclaim abandoned houses.

“I think they have been most engaged in talking with us about this and really wanting to partner to find a solution. … We had a lot of folks ready to go,” Killen said. “It also is a really good test, because Leavenworth is somewhat urban, but somewhat rural in terms of when you look at the state of Kansas. And is a really good kind of test of: ‘How does this operate in this type of environment?’ Because it is a military town. So there’s a lot of interesting things that I think we’re going to learn.”

One of the abandoned homes named in the litigation. Kansas law sets out a process to notify the last known property owners and hold a court hearing at which a judge decides whether the property meets the state’s definition of abandonment.

It could take up to two years for a resolution, but the end result is worth waiting for, said Sister Amy Willcott, the director of Depaul Leavenworth Attainable Housing.

Willcott and her staff noticed that many people at the local homeless shelter were stuck. Despite working full time and sleeping rent-free, residents could never save enough to pay a first-month’s rent, a security deposit and show proof that they make three times the monthly rent – common requirements for leasing. The median rent in Leavenworth County was $1,138 in 2023, according to the Kansas Housing Advocacy Network. That means that the average renter would have to make over $40,000 annually to qualify for rental housing.

“That blew my mind, that that is the state of things these days,” Willcott said.

Leavenworth Attainable Housing owns 19 scattered houses, several of them renovated, once “dumpy houses” (as Willcott calls them). Some homes are designated for families and others are congregate housing, including one house that has three men as roommates.

The nonprofit charges 30% of a person’s income for rent and covers the utilities. They are well-practiced in the art of rehabbing houses and have a long list of people needing supportive housing.

Depaul Leavenworth Attainable Housing is well-versed in rehabbing homes. The nonprofit owns 19 homes, renting them out to tenants for no more than 30% of their income. The house pictured is one of their active houses.

Willcott got involved in the current legal action when a KHAN network member connected her and Killen, knowing Attainable Housing was well-versed in rehabbing homes for affordable housing. Willcott, lawyers from Neighborhood Legal Support and city officials identified properties that fit the statute’s guidelines for abandonment, then filed their court case.

“It’s sprucing up the neighborhood. One of the houses (we looked at) was from a man who died years ago. It belongs to his heirs that don’t want the house. They don’t live around here. … It’s like, for heaven’s sake, just give us the house, right?” Willcott said.

Many of these abandoned homes are more than just a lost opportunity – they grow into nuisances. Dilapidated homes often turn into a weedy, trash-strewn mess that attracts squatters. They can be both an eyesore and a safety concern.

That’s why, Killen said, the lawsuit can be a success regardless of the judge’s ruling, as long as properties are repaired.

“Even if it doesn’t make its way to the process of getting rehabilitated by the nonprofit, it’s a really good way to get those property owners who haven’t been paying attention to pay attention. Because we get a lawsuit filed, suddenly you have to kind of do something,” she said.

“It really takes problem properties in communities and turns it back into useful, affordable housing. It’s a really great solution. Really excited to see this being tested.”

This article first appeared on KLC Journal and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.