‘I want to be warm.’ KC residents want more accountability after gas, power outage

After days in the cold, some residents of an apartment complex in Northeast Kansas City are getting their gas and power back, but tenants and a tenant’s rights group say problems remain with the company that owns the apartments.

Late Thursday into Friday, Kansas City firefighters turned off gas at some of the buildings in the apartment complex on Lawn Avenue to respond to a small blaze, but determined it was too dangerous to turn it back on, leaving residents without heat throughout the cold weekend and into the day Monday.

Then, late Sunday, a gas leak at another building in the complex forced fire officials and the Kansas City Health Department to evacuate tenants.

FTW Investments, the group that owns the properties, said it provided residents with temporary housing. But some tenants chose to stay and deal with the cold because they needed to remain close to work and their children’s school, or had health concerns or other reservations about leaving their homes.

Jason Merrill, a spokesman for Spire, said gas was back on at the buildings affected by fire, and inspectors were spending Tuesday restoring gas unit by unit to the other building as it’s deemed safe. Spire and property maintenance worked throughout Monday to identify the source of the gas leaks, but faced issues because there may be more than one leak, according to Michelle Pekarsky, a spokeswoman for the Kansas City Health Department.

Evergy also restored power to one of the larger buildings in the complex Monday evening, meaning residents had the ability to run space heaters and other warming devices, Pekarsky said.

Healthy Homes, a rental inspection program run through the city, was on site throughout the day to ensure progress in repairs, Pekarsky said. The team determined that all shut off valves in the building would be replaced. Gas to vacant units will be capped so that officials can more easily identify the four active lines in the building.

On Tuesday, Pekarsky said work was continuing on the property, particularly focusing on the largest building with the most occupied units.

Tenants on Monday stood outside the apartment complex in the 100 block of Lawn Avenue shivering.

One of the residents, Sofia Be, has helped rally her neighbors together in the last few days by connecting with the Kansas City Tenants Union and translating information about the issues and options like temporary housing to her neighbors, many of whom primarily speak Burmese.

“I want to help my neighbor. I want to support them,” she said. “When I support into them, they support into me, too. I want to be warm. They want to be warm, too.”

Be didn’t leave her apartment because her husband needs to stay close to his job, and she can’t drive to take her children to and from their nearby elementary school.

While the gas issues that began last week seem to be getting fixed, Be, who lives with her husband and four young kids, said issues at the apartments have dated back far longer, and residents have rarely heard from the building’s owners.

Until he came to the building Monday, Be said she had never seen Parker Webb, the CEO and co-founder of FTW Investments, which purchased the buildings in 2021. Webb is also a board for reStart, an organization that works to help people experiencing homelessness.

Community support

Be reached out to Janie Taylor, her daughter’s former first grade teacher at Gladstone Elementary, when she experienced problems at the apartment. Taylor has taught at the school, a few blocks from the apartments, for six years and frequently gives out her personal phone number to families in case they need help.

Be first reached out to Taylor about issues at the apartment at the beginning of the school year, when a squatter performed a sexual act in front of her. Taylor came to Be’s home to help her call police, file an incident report and navigate the legal system. It took about a month to remove the man from the property and get him charged.

When the gas and heat turned off, Be reached out to Taylor again by phone and the next day at parent pickup to let her know the issue wasn’t getting fixed and families were cold. Taylor contacted the fire department to get more information, connected Be with the tenant’s union and praised her throughout the weekend for speaking out.

Other teachers started asking how they could help, so Taylor started a GoFundMe that has raised around $1,300 as of Tuesday morning to help families with the increased expenses for meals and electricity bills from space heaters.

“I just knew that there was going to be a lot of financial burdens coming up for them,” Taylor said.

The tenant’s union also held a supply drive to get warming supplies donated to residents, and has helped support Be and other tenants as they gathered information and communicated with the city.

Tara Raghuveer, director of the KC Tenants Union, was at the apartments throughout the weekend and Monday helping residents navigate problems and get access to about three carloads of warming supplies. While Webb was on the property Monday, she said interactions between them were tense.

A history of problems

In a statement Monday, FTW Investments claimed that squatters who illegally entered the property caused the fire on Thursday, and said representatives were on site that evening to help with relocation. The problems with squatters, trespassing and fires, they said, have been an issue throughout the Historic Northeast neighborhood.

Webb wrote that companies like FTW that work to “make housing affordable and nice for all residents of Kansas City” should not be blamed for these problems. Instead, Webb, who is also a board member for homelessness services organization reStart, that all community stakeholders need to commit to finding solutions to the city’s homelessness problem.

FTW, he said, has and will continue to contribute to that work.

“It is unacceptable and highly regrettable that the people who did this did so without regard for the lives of those around them who legally live in that building and rely on it to be close to their children’s schools, their work, and their community,” Webb said. “FTW Investments will continue to make sure this property is livable, even as we prepare to sell it to another company, and will not leave the people who rely on us for their housing without options.”

The company said it will continue to cooperate with police and fire officials and said they will work toward holding “individuals who committed this act of potentially deadly arson” accountable. FTW also said it would continue to work to get families back in their homes and restore all services quickly.

But residents and neighbors say there are many more problems at the apartments.

Inside, tenants run power cords between units. A window shattered by a stray bullet months ago hasn’t been fixed. On the outside, duct tape and wood have been used to cover splintered glass, and holes on exterior walls remain unfixed. Despite the break-ins, Be said she has never seen a security presence at the property.

Taylor Zink, who’s lived behind the apartments on Elmwood Avenue since 2019, said she and her neighbors have filed numerous complaints to the city about the apartments. She said the complex has declined in the last few years, resulting in fires from illegal dumping, trash overflowing into yards, and rat and mice infestations that impact Zink and her neighbors. Right now, she pays $50 a month for an exterminator to handle rats in her yard.

Until recently, Zink didn’t think anyone lived in the buildings because they’re in such poor condition and had “Do not enter” and “No trespassing” signs posted on fences and doors.

“If he’s truly investing in something, why is it falling apart?” Zink said. “Why isn’t he caring about his tenants? His tenants should be his investment. His tenants deserve better than what they’ve been doing.”

While Webb and FTW said they have little control over squatters who they claim have caused the problems at the apartment, Raghuveer said the company needs to be held accountable.

She also said there’s a larger question of why the city hasn’t done more despite numerous health code violations and complaints at the property.

“They have the right to strip a license or permit and they rarely do,” Raghuveer said. “Kansas City Tenants think they can and should exercise that more freely and keep people in better homes.”

The city did not specify what additional steps it would be taking to ensure problems at the property were under control.

The Star’s Jenna Thompson contributed to this report.