Double the City’s annual affordable-housing investment by replacing retiring debt, keeping the property tax rate flat.
Shall the City of Kansas City, Missouri issue its general obligation bonds in an amount not to exceed $100,000,000.00 for the purpose of affordable housing through the rehabilitation, renovation, and construction of houses and buildings, including blight removal, to provide affordable housing for very low- to moderate-income households?
The authorization of the bonds will authorize the City to maintain tangible property tax rates sufficient to pay the interest and principal on the bonds until fully paid.
Kansas City is short an estimated 64,000 affordable homes, a gap concentrated among the very-low-income and extremely-low-income families who can least absorb rising rents. The City’s housing director, Blaine Proctor, put it plainly: the shortage is made up of households at the bottom of the income ladder, the people with the fewest options when a unit is lost or a rent goes up. The Housing Trust Fund that the City built to chip away at this gap is on track to run out: the $50 million voters approved in 2022 has been going out the door at roughly $15 million a year and is projected to be spent by 2027.
Question 1 authorizes the City to issue up to $100 million in general obligation bonds for affordable housing: rehabilitating and renovating existing houses and buildings, building new ones, and clearing blighted property, all to serve very-low- to moderate-income households. The money flows through the Housing Trust Fund, the City’s competitive grant program for affordable housing. With this infusion the Trust Fund could award about $20 million a year through 2032, roughly double its current pace, potentially producing thousands more affordable units.
Without new bonds the Trust Fund effectively goes dark in 2027, just as the shortage is most acute. The bond does not just keep the program alive, it scales it: doubling annual investment is the difference between a few hundred units and several thousand over the life of the program. And it is structured so taxpayers carry no higher rate, because it slots into the space left by about $200 million in older City debt that is being retired.
A YES on Question 1 lets the City sell up to $100 million in housing bonds and roughly double what the Housing Trust Fund can invest each year, while keeping the property tax RATE flat by replacing debt that is being paid off. Because it is a general obligation bond, it needs a four-sevenths supermajority, so turnout and margin both matter.
2018
Kansas City establishes the Housing Trust Fund (Ordinance 180719)
May 2021
Fund first seeded with $12.5 million in federal pandemic relief
Nov 2022
Voters approve a $50 million infusion to the Trust Fund
2026
Trust Fund has awarded more than $61 million, helping fund roughly 3,000 affordable units
2027
The 2022 funding is projected to be fully spent
Aug 4, 2026
Voters decide Question 1, the $100 million affordable housing bond
Through 2032
If passed, the Trust Fund could award about $20 million a year, roughly double its current pace
This is a property-tax-backed general obligation bond, not a tax-free measure, and the ballot language says so directly: it authorizes the City to keep property tax rates high enough to pay the bonds off. What stays flat is the RATE. The City can issue these $100 million in bonds without raising the debt-service levy because roughly $200 million in older general-obligation debt is being paid off and these bonds take its place. So the honest framing is: no increase to your property tax RATE, but yes, this is debt repaid by the City’s debt-service property tax, not a cost-free program.
How the financing works
General obligation (GO) bond, up to $100,000,000, backed by the City’s debt-service (tangible) property tax levy. It is structured to replace roughly $200 million in older general-obligation debt that is being paid off, so the debt-service tax RATE stays flat rather than rising. Proceeds flow through the Kansas City Housing Trust Fund. This is a property-tax-backed bond, not a tax-free measure: the ballot language itself authorizes the City to maintain property tax rates sufficient to pay principal and interest on the bonds. Requires a four-sevenths (57.1%) supermajority because it is a GO bond.
As a general obligation bond, this question needs a four-sevenths supermajority (about 57.1 percent), not a simple majority. Turnout and margin both matter.
Always confirm the final wording and official question order on your authenticated sample ballot from the Kansas City Election Board.
Vote on or before August 4, 2026. Polls are open 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM.