Housing corporation head discusses the state of home in Kansas

Ryan Vincent knows a thing or two about the feeling of “home.”

Vincent is the executive director of the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation (KHRC) and a Sunflower State native whose daily work involves finding quality homes for people in need and promoting the need to greatly expand affordable housing options. He’s been with the self-supporting, nonprofit, public corporation for 20 years, spreading the word on why the state needs to invest in higher-quality housing – and why he believes building more affordable homes is the key to a thriving future for Kansas.

The Journal sought out Vincent for his unique vantage point on the state of housing in Kansas. Here is a summary of his conversation with The Journal’s AJ Dome in a Q&A format. Some answers have been trimmed for length or edited to provide greater clarity.

AJ: Howdy, Ryan! Thank you so much for chatting with me.

RV: Thank you, AJ! I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about housing in Kansas.

AJ: Likewise. So, let’s begin with the 30,000-foot view. What is the actual state of housing in Kansas right now, from your perspective?

RV: I’ve probably enjoyed the broadest 30,000-foot view of what our housing needs are in the state between my travels and my talks with others (across Kansas). One thing I’ve noticed is: There’s truly a bipartisan recognition that we’ve got to do something about our state’s housing needs.

For years, it seemed like our office, and maybe myself, were the lonely voices in the wilderness, crying out about housing. I think partially it’s economics, and partially it’s the realization or the recognition that came from the COVID-19 pandemic, that we’ve got to stop leaping from crisis to crisis. We have to address the housing problem in our state. That’s good for me, a person with a passion for housing, for homes.

Quality housing is not only essential for people already living in a home, but also for schools, health care providers, and for our employers. All these different sections of our community that we need to work together. It’s not just workers and bankers getting it now.

AJ: That recognition is hugely important, I bet.

RV: It is huge. It’s rewarding to see, and now we’re seeing the results of that attention on homes in our state. Folks are getting that, if we want to invest in housing, we’ll have some long-term gains for our communities. By investing in just a few units in a small town, you can make a big difference.

AJ: Not everyone needs a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a garage that’s nearly as big as the house.

RV: In my time, I’ve seen a wider recognition that building a cookie-cutter single-family home with a garage isn’t the solution to most people’s housing needs. There’s the recognition of an aging population, and the recognition that duplexes and other more accessible units are all keys to meeting the housing needs of our citizens. It’s kind of cool to see the actual product that’s getting built through our office and the private sector starting to catch up to the demands of the market.

AJ: How are some communities meeting their housing needs? I’m sure the market looks different depending on where you are in Kansas.

RV: Stafford comes to mind first. One of KHRC’s first housing grants went to the small community of Stafford (about 80 miles northwest of Wichita) for housing revitalization.

In my mind, a home is more than four walls and a roof. It creates a place of safety, of comfort, a place where we can be ourselves. That’s what we’re able to finance through my office and the state. What it takes is people to invest in their homes and communities. As far as impact, once we invest in homes in the smallest rural communities, it’s going to create new ‘coverables’ as far as appraising and property taxes, which also leads to more lenders willing to give loans for rural homes. Then we can start addressing some of these communities with a high vacancy rate.

AJ: And, in our time, it seems more and more Kansas towns are shrinking because of their housing issues.

RV: That’s also true. I think of Lincoln as well. KHRC gave a grant to that community to save a historic home. That home is now being lived in by a teacher who’s able to stay in their community. What that’s doing is keeping the workforce in town. They may eventually raise children who will attend local schools. We could reverse trends of up to 50 years (of population decline) in some communities.

AJ: That could be major for some of our smallest communities. Some places in western Kansas don’t have a lot of quality options for people. And the average age of homes in the state skews older, doesn’t it?

RV: According to the statewide housing needs assessment we did in 2021, a third of our state’s entire housing stock was built before 1960. Some places have a median age of residents in their 60s. You have a lot of seniors living in big homes, probably in more house than they need, but there are no smaller options with better accessibility, so they stay put. By staying put, they’re removing from the housing pool affordable family homes that aren’t available to the next generation.

You start to see these sticking points in the market in rural areas particularly. A lot of these folks want to stay in their communities. That’s where their life is. If we’re able to somehow help grease the sticking points a little bit, maybe help fund some accessible duplexes that have some maintenance provided, then we’re opening up some homes for seniors to get into, and those seniors are freeing up larger, multiroom houses for families.

AJ: What are employers saying about the state’s housing needs?

RV: I not only hear about employers struggling to fill the jobs they have, but they’re wanting to grow. It’s not for a lack of interest in moving to a community, it’s a lack of housing for people to live in when they’re off work.

If we can start to build up the supply of affordable housing, or housing that is affordable for both lower- to middle-income families, then we’ll be helping not only those employers, but the communities as a whole.

AJ: That sounds great, but there’s always a “but” in the way.

RV: (laughs) There is a big “but.” There are always barriers outside of our control. I think our housing study does a great job of breaking down the micro- and macroeconomic factors.

I think of how, following the Great Recession in 2007-08, there was just an exponential fall in the number of people who were building homes. That level has never come back up. If you get people out of the building trades – and our builders and plumbers and general contractors, they’re aging and retiring – the supply is decreasing, and the demand is increasing.

AJ: I know many high schools in Kansas offer career and technical education courses that include construction and building trades, but it seems like they can’t graduate enough seniors to meet the demand.

RV: There’s also the supply of housing in general. You may have some communities where the only new housing being built is for upper-income residents. Builders can make more money by just building high-income housing than they ever could by building low- or moderate-income housing.

Right now, there’s no incentive for people to build low- to middle-income housing.

AJ: COVID-19 led to more extremes in housing as well. I can speak from personal experience regarding high rent costs while being unemployed and feeling anxiety about the virus.

RV: We certainly saw that a lot during the pandemic. We served more than 90,000 Kansans who were at risk of losing their home during the 18 months we ran the Kansas Emergency Rental Assistance program. A lot of these folks were more moderate-income Kansans who just found that, because of lost work hours or medical expenses, they quickly found themselves at risk of losing their home. That’s indicative that so many Kansans are just a couple of lost paychecks away from losing their home. When you have households paying 60 to 70% of their monthly wages on their home, there’s not a lot of cushion.

That’s why housing that’s affordable on every income level is key, and why, by both addressing affordability and supply, we’re addressing the underlying problem and not just putting out fires every time there’s a crisis.

AJ: Is Kansas in a crisis overall with housing?

RV: Kansas certainly isn’t alone when it comes to a lack of affordable housing. This is a national issue. You can pick an era in time, and it seems like we haven’t grasped the issue totally. It still comes down to affordable housing.

AJ: How do you make sure that housing is provided fairly and equitably?

RV: Obviously our office is very aware of housing equity challenges. That’s something we’re working on. We’re very thoughtful of not placing low-income housing in one area or neighborhood and investing in dilapidated areas.

AJ: And making sure people stay in their homes when they’re having financial trouble.

RV: Yes. At one point, we saw thousands of Kansans who were at risk of foreclosure or eviction (during the pandemic). We wanted to make sure they had housing stability, to make sure they were in a good place. On one hand, we had what I’ll call housing providers. Call them landlords, property owners, what have you. You had these private property owners, many of which were small businesses who were also struggling. We found ourselves in a unique position right between the two, having to supply a resource that was finite but the need large at the time.

It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the concerns people had, and we started connecting landowners and property managers and tenants. We started to talk through not only what they were experiencing, but also some underlying issues and tensions that we see between people who own property and people who rent. The Kansas Supreme Court put together an ad hoc commission that had landlords and Realtors, but also Kansas Legal Services representatives and advocates, and they started to talk through the laws, asking if they are fair, what changes they could make.

AJ: And what was the main nugget of information gleaned from that whole process?

RV: If people are aware of their rights and resources, then that’s going to benefit both sides. Most of the issues people are facing as homeowners or renters tie back to having more affordable housing stock to begin with. If there’s more affordable housing available, it’ll deflate some of the competition.

AJ: So then, where are the incentives to build affordable housing?

RV: There’s a few. Right now, whether you’re building a single-family home or a giant property, rural or urban area alike, the problem is there’s an affordability gap. A lot of customers are ruled out by the high starting price or monthly payment for a home. Or there are subsidies, right now mostly from government sources. KHRC administers

government programs to finance part of the cost (of building affordable housing).

I think sometimes people think of affordable housing as only a government program. The truth is that public-private partnerships are the best at it right now. If not for these programs, there wouldn’t be affordable housing in a vast majority of some Kansas communities. If you see new housing or apartments being built in a town, it’s most likely from a program like this. We’re not the only housing provider or funder in the state. What we have is a team connecting people statewide, rural and urban alike. We also know the right resources to be able to fit whatever the need is.

AJ: I hear you. What if that resource is information for first-time homebuyers? Is it still worth it to buy a home in Kansas right now?

RV: When I grew up, all of us heard that buying a home was the greatest investment you can make. I think that ultimately led to some challenges with the housing market collapse in 2008. Owning a home is still the greatest source of wealth for most people. We have to make sure we’re thinking holistically about the value and benefits of homeownership, and the stability of it.

One thing I say is: Homeownership isn’t for everyone. It comes with different needs and a different vision. That’s why it’s important to offer as many diverse housing options as possible. If we’re thoughtful about offering a diverse variety of housing options, we can leave it to the population to drive what they ultimately want. Then we can best address our state’s needs.

We do have a couple of programs in our office to help people get into their first home. There’s the First Time Homebuyer Program, and the new Rural Home Loan Guarantee Program. We have flexible programs to help a lot of different people with their needs.

AJ: Tell me what KHRC does to help folks with their home maintenance, making them more energy efficient, helping homes last longer.

RV: KHRC has long administered the state weatherization program, which is also funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. Our weatherization program addresses the cause, more than just offering utility assistance, which KHRC also does. Our team does an energy audit. They have infrared cameras and blower door tests. They’ll put all that data in a software system that’ll rank utility measures and cost over time, and our program will actually approve the measures that are working.

AJ: Does that program cost anything to use?

RV: Weatherization is free to eligible Kansans. And, under recent infrastructure investments passed by Congress, we have significantly more funding for weatherization in the coming years, so I would encourage people to use that program. It’s on the KHRC website.

AJ: How important is it to you to “unlock home” for those who are homeless? (Note: “Unlock home” is the agency’s motto.)

RV: We realize there’s always been, and unfortunately probably always will be, people experiencing homelessness. That’s why we provide funding for emergency shelters. We get federal grants for that, as well as domestic-violence centers.

We recognize that it needs to be a holistic approach, that we provide supportive housing services, which ties in with mental health services, addiction recovery, maybe even legal services. The long-term goal for all of us (at KHRC) is to get these folks out of temporary housing and into long-term, stable housing, and ultimately for them to be fulfilled.

AJ: Are there some people who don’t believe that they need more affordable housing in their community?

RV: There are policymakers in Kansas who don’t believe it’s a problem. I think there’s definitely still a stigma that comes with homelessness. I think understanding some of the causes, why people are homeless … It’s worth remembering that it could be any of us.

AJ: Right. Quite honestly, you and I are way closer to becoming homeless than we are to becoming millionaires.

RV: Exactly. Personally, my family is pretty comfortable, but we’re all only one or two medical catastrophes away from disaster. It wipes out our savings, maybe removes our ability to work, and suddenly we’re in that vulnerable position facing housing instability. That’s why addressing all these different things, including affordable housing, is important.

AJ: What’s something you hope for in the next legislative session?

RV: I hope policymakers realize that affordable housing is an investment. There’s some cost up-front, but it’s more than returned through economic development, in job creation and expansion. Housing is worth the investment, and it’s changing a lot of lives. That’s something I hope to deliver to state lawmakers in the coming session.

I think these are exciting times in our state. I think we’re truly making momentum in addressing the underlying housing problem. It’s exciting, and it’s overwhelming at times. The more you achieve, the more you realize there’s a bigger job ahead.

A version of this article appears in the Summer 2024 issue of The Journal , a publication of the Kansas Leadership Center. To learn more about KLC, visit http://kansasleadershipcenter.org . Order your copy of the magazine at the KLC Store or subscribe to the print edition.

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