The Abandoned Housing Conversion Project

There are more than 7,000 abandoned properties in Kansas City.  They are magnets for crime.  They discourage investment and, most importantly, severely damage quality of life in urban core neighborhoods.

Hundreds of abandoned houses in the City can be rehabbed and turned into high quality housing for low-income families.  One major obstacle to converting abandoned properties into homes is that most of them have legal claims on them that keep them from being developed.  Mortgages, judgment liens against prior owners and claims of heirs of owners who died intestate have to be cleared before rehab can begin.

NLS clears title for lynch-pin, urban core properties that can play a critical role in revitalizing low-income neighborhoods, if they can be rehabbed.  NLS clears title on properties to be rehabbed by Habitat for Humanity, Westside Housing, Brinshore Development, Catholic Charities, the Ivanhoe Neighborhood Council and other developers to make great homes for urban families.  This project will allow us to clear title on five properties that will be promptly turned into much-needed, good quality housing, as soon as the title is cleared. 

Work with partner neighborhood associations to identify lynch-pin properties with title defects that need to be resolved before the properties can be rehabbed.  Completed

Identify developers to rehab the properties once the claims against the properties have been cleared.  Completed

Begin Quiet Title litigation against claimants who have mortgages, judgment liens or other claims against the properties.  To date, NLS has won every Quiet Title action it has brought.  Will start within 3 weeks of obtaining funding.

Complete Quiet Title litigation so that the properties can be rehabbed.  The litigation takes 2-6 months.

When abandoned houses are rehabbed and turned into good quality homes, they provide a tremendous boost to the neighborhood.  They reduce crime, increase tax revenue, encourage neighborhood investment and make the neighborhood a happier, healthier place to live.

Clearing title on abandoned properties is a critical first step to turning them into high quality homes.  In a recent report, The Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Urban Neighborhood Initiative concluded that clearing titles on urban core properties “is the most impactful avenue for reinvestment in vacant and distressed urban core properties.”  (emphasis added)  Frequently, as soon as the title is cleared, a not-for-profit or good-quality private investor is ready to rehab the property.

Clearing titles is a highly cost-effective way to breathe new life into urban core neighborhoods.

Note that all donations up to $2,839.50 will be matched by a generous grant from the Community Capital Fund.