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- 17 - accessHealthNews.net November 2023 Volume 10 | Issue No. 78 The 64128 ZIP Code is the eighth most vacant ZIP Code in the nation. It also has very low owner occupancy rates, meaning a majority of people are renting and therefore vulnerable to being displaced as property values appreciate. Recently, Jackson County has seen increases of nearly 37% of property values, increases which target the communities that are least equipped to tolerate that financial pressure. People in those neighborhoods cannot afford a new build, and so new builds are raising property taxes and displacing the people who are renting. Ajia Morris is the founder and founding executive director for the Greenline Foundation, a nonprofit which was established in 2021 to address many of the real estate, property value, and quality of life issues in Kansas City's East Side. She and her husband also co-founded the Greenline Initiative, a for-profit organization which focuses on residential real estate development. East Side Shuffle What they realized before learning about 64128's vacancy is that many of the vacant homes have vacant abandoned lots adjacent to them, so many that the city has a program where if they own a vacant lot next to a person's home, that person can purchase the vacant lot for $75. "There is a very low entry point to community ownership of these lots in this land," Morris said. The land bank also has over 1000 of these parcels available for sale for about $2-5000 each, which are just accumulating in the bank. A majority of these vacant lots are on Kansas City's East Side. "If they were in a more valuable neighborhood, or ZIP Code, they would be purchased for new construction," Morris said. "So how do we leverage this resource that we have on the East Side?" In partnership with Local Code Kansas City and the Greenline Initiative, the Greenline Foundation sources funds to purchase those lots and keep the green space alive on the East Side to help keep temperatures down. Because of the density, and the fact that Highway 71 is right between the East Side of Kansas City, there is an increase in heat, chemicals, and the likelihood of asthmatic flare-ups and medical flare-ups related to being so close to a highway. "There are many negatives associated with a highway running down the middle of your neighborhood," Morris explained. To counteract that, while the green space is healthy and healing for the community to have an activated place to go outside, it is also healthy environmentally to keep it green to counteract some of the effects of the highway running down the middle of the community. Much of the vacancy in 64128 comes from mismanagement of contracts and ownership in secession. When property taxes go up, they often go unpaid because, for example, a grandmother passed and left the house to four children and nobody pays the taxes. The taxes go unpaid for three years, the city takes the house for the amount the taxes are worth, and the city will sell that house and put out the family. "That's basically what happens to a lot of people in my neighborhood because they aren't necessarily aware of what's happening, kind of like on the west side when prices go up," Morris said. Some people own their house, but the property taxes will be too much for them to pay on the year. Morris said this increase has impacted the elderly population that is on a fixed income the most. It impacts the elderly and it impacts those who are unaware of their tax situation and incapable of paying for it. When a property tax goes up, property taxes increase, a process which occurs because of gentrification. "My neighbors aren't necessarily able to protest, to appeal, so this will happen to them," Morris said. "If they were in a more valuable neighborhood, or ZIP Code, they would be purchased for new construction,so how do we leverage this resource that we have on the East Side?" - Ajia Morris Founder, Greenline Foundation READ MORE

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