Economic Security

PROVEN PROGRAMS HELP FAMILIES ON THE EDGE. When families are financially secure, children experience stability and can grow with the support they need to thrive. For too long, Kansas parents have had to navigate a system that works against them — child care that is sparse and unaffordable; rising costs for housing, medical care, and groceries; and stagnant wages.

These factors lead to thousands of Kansas parents struggling to ensure their kids are cared for while at work, feed their families, provide a safe home, and access critical health care.

Several programs exist to help parents make ends meet. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) makes taxes more fair, improves families’ mental and physical health, and increases employment. SNAP (called food assistance in Kansas) lifts tens of thousands of Kansans out of poverty each year. Access to concrete supports, including SNAP and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), are correlated with decreased instances of child neglect and interaction with the child welfare system. WIC participation leads to healthier outcomes for parents, infants, and children.

These programs support the families who need them, help them transition into financial stability and self-sufficiency, and lead to a brighter future for all Kansas kids.

Harmful Policy Still Blocks Crucial Support to Kansas Families

Unfortunately, our country and state are moving in the wrong direction by weakening supports for struggling families. Kansas limits access to many of these programs in a way that worsens outcomes for families living on low incomes. For example, participation in SNAP has fallen more than 40% in Kansas since program restrictions were implemented by the Brownback administration more than a decade ago. In 2015 and 2016, harmful legislation misleadingly called the HOPE Act codified those restrictions into state law and prevents families’ access to support and anti-poverty programs that can help them get back on their feet.

KAC and our partners have worked hard to make it easier for Kansans to access programs that are proven to lift people out of poverty and temporarily help those experiencing hardship. Instead of working alongside us, the Legislature and Congress have continued to make it even harder for poor, working Kansans to put food on their tables.

Kansas is not doing all that it can to give children and families the support they need to grow up healthy and thrive, and leaders are leaving millions of federal dollars unspent in the process. Kansas has some of the most restrictive food assistance rules in the country, which are punitive to people with more than one drug felony, single parents, and working adults with unstable, unpredictable schedules. Unfortunately, the Legislature has doubled down on some of these ineffective, harmful restrictions in recent years by expanding work reporting requirements to Kansans in their 50s who struggle to make ends meet.

Kansas spends significantly less than the national average of its TANF dollars on helping families living on low wages who qualify through direct assistance, work activities, and child care. Instead, most of our TANF dollars go to activities that do not directly contribute to TANF’s core purpose of reducing poverty.

Kansas excludes eligible U.S. citizen children from receiving EITC benefits if they are in a “mixed-status” household. The Kansas Legislature has also not increased the state EITC, which could improve tax fairness and multiply the credit’s benefits for children, families, and communities.

Kansas has still not raised its minimum wage above the federal level of $7.25 per hour, and lawmakers have implemented policy that prevents cities and counties from requiring employers to pay a living wage. Low-wage workers often turn to safety net programs, like food assistance and TANF, to help them get through the month. Kansas makes it difficult to access these crucial safety net programs while also allowing employers to pay poverty wages, leaving thousands of Kansans stuck in a cycle of financial instability.

Kansas has done little to address skyrocketing rents and housing prices and has even created barriers to addressing the housing crisis. Kansas is one of just a handful of states that bans inclusionary zoning, keeping cities from requiring developers to include affordable units in their developments. Kansas also prohibits cities from implementing caps on excessive rent increases. For Kansans who rent, the affordability crisis is even more acute. Renters are more than twice as likely to be housing cost-burdened as homeowners, spending more than 30% of their monthly income on housing costs.

Policy Solutions

To improve the well-being of all Kansas families, lawmakers must focus on policies that put more money into Kansans’ pockets. From food to housing to wages, Kansas has made life more difficult for families. Ensuring more Kansans facing hardships can keep their families afloat while they regain stability is good for all Kansas communities.

The Kansas Legislature should:

• Protect and expand access to the food assistance program by rejecting new barriers that prevent access and rolling back barriers that have been resurrected over the past decade. Recent federal changes, like the extension of work reporting requirements to some parents and grandparents, will cause families to lose their food assistance, and lawmakers should refuse to codify those changes into state law. Lawmakers should also revisit the harsh barriers created by the HOPE Act that caused thousands of Kansans to lose their food assistance a decade ago.
• Keep kids fed during the summer by supporting the Summer EBT program. Childhood food insecurity has historically spiked during the summer months, when school meals are no longer an option for families. This program provides food benefits to approximately 134,000 Kansas kids during the summer. To participate, Kansas must opt-in and provide funding for 50% of the administrative costs, which amounts to about $900,000 per year. Kansas lawmakers should ensure the funding remains in the state budget and continue to champion the program that keeps so many kids from being hungry.
• Address barriers to safe and affordable housing.
  
  • Implement policies that will provide more safe and affordable housing options, including:
    
    • Source-of-income discrimination laws. Federal housing assistance programs are available for veterans and for families who don’t earn enough to afford housing, yet some landlords refuse to rent to applicants who utilize these assistance programs — and it’s completely legal. When landlords can reject a potential tenant simply due to using a government program, it makes it difficult for the most vulnerable Kansans to find a place to live. Requiring landlords to accept different forms of payment from folks who need a bit of help will ensure more families can access safe housing.
    • Baseline property maintenance codes. Kansas is one of only two states that does not have a statewide, baseline property maintenance code. Adopting such a code will give renters the tools they need to make sure their home is safely maintained.
    • Tenant protections against retaliation. Renters should have legal avenues to enforce property maintenance code violations. If they file a complaint, they should not face retaliatory evictions or rent increases. Lawmakers can prevent retaliation by shifting the balance of power and creating a presumption that the landlord’s conduct was retaliatory when there is evidence a complaint had been filed against them in the previous year.
    • Right to Repair legislation. In the event a landlord is not responsive to a tenant’s maintenance requests, an alternate path must be allowed to ensure the home is a safe place to live. After a renter has made reasonable attempts to contact their landlord regarding a maintenance request, Kansas law should allow renters to hire a contractor to perform maintenance at market rate and require reimbursement from the landlord.
    • Eviction expungement. When a family experiences an economic hardship that results in an eviction, that eviction stays on their record for the rest of their life, making it difficult to find a place to live. They should have the opportunity to earn their way back to a clean rental record after that period of hardship. Allowing Kansans to expunge past evictions after two years will help address housing insecurity for many families.
  • Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Renters and homeowners alike would be more secure if an Affordable Housing Trust Fund were created to fund things like rental and property tax assistance, home repair, and shared equity housing development.