UPDATE 4/16/2020: Communities Creating Opportunity has sent a second letter to the Mayor and City Council to solidify and broaden our demands.

• We demand that accurate data be collected for each person who dies of COVID-19: age, race, and zip code. We demand that this information, including zip code, be released to the public each week. Release of zip codes is being resisted by the County Executive but this information must be made public. 
• We demand that adequate emergency financial assistance be given to all workers who have lost jobs or income because of the virus. Other cities like Austin and Los Angeles have already launched such programs. 
• We demand free universal childcare for parents who must continue to work and cannot afford the additional expense of childcare. With so many families facing this sudden, unexpected financial burden, the city must subsidize childcare. 
• We demand forgiveness of unpaid utility bills and a ban on evictions in the city. People without jobs or income do not deserve utility shut-offs, mounting bills which will be impossible to pay off, or loss of their residence. 
• We demand housing for the homeless. The city can partner with empty hotels, schools, and other vacant buildings to house everyone during this crisis. 
• We demand that the city government coordinate and support food distribution networks to ensure that everyone is fed. We cannot expect churches, who are already suffering financially, to feed everyone who is hungry. 
• We demand that multidisciplinary rapid response teams be put in place to respond to virus hotspots, especially in the 3rd District, to provide testing, education, support, and access to treatment.

Please SIGN and SHARE! Read our full second letter below. 

***

Dear Mayor Lucas and members of the Kansas City Council, 

When the COVID-19 virus began to strike Kansas City, Communities Creating Opportunity (CCO) appealed to the Mayor and City Council to immediately take proactive steps to ensure that the most vulnerable residents of our city would not disproportionately suffer the consequences of the pandemic. We knew, as did anyone who pays attention to social determinants of health, that the virus would take the greatest toll in Kansas City’s zip codes where, prior to the onset of the virus, residents had a seventeen-year shorter life expectancy than those in adjacent zip codes. 

For years CCO has focused its work on these geographies and the crippling economic disparities. In this moment of crisis, we were particularly concerned with residents who are primarily black, many without health insurance, many working in low wage jobs, many unemployed or underemployed. Today’s facts bear out what we knew would happen. Black residents are dying in disproportionate numbers in Kansas City and across the United States. As of this week, 50% of those who have tested positive for the virus in Kansas City are black, while African Americans are 30% of the city’s population. Especially hard hit are residents of the 3rd District, where at last report 55 people have tested positive, the highest number among city council districts. 

We heard nothing from the Mayor’s office and had no response from Council members. Our appeal outlined bold action steps to mitigate the economic fallout and help residents stay home rather than exposing themselves to the virus. We urged you to provide adequate cash assistance for those who had lost jobs or income and for those who needed funds for childcare. We urged forgiveness of utility bills, not just postponement of payment. We urged assurances that there would be no evictions for inability to pay rent. We urged housing for all the homeless. Meeting these needs was vital. 

As a faith-based organization, CCO believes in the worth and dignity of every human being and that those who are suffering and dying are our sisters and brothers. We again implore the Mayor and Council to lead us to a new day -- not tomorrow, not following months of debate, but today, this day, now. Certainly the Council’s support for small businesses is essential, but caring for the health and welfare of every man, woman, and child in Kansas City is the moral imperative. You have it within your power to relieve suffering and death. 

CCO makes the following demands: 

We demand that accurate data be collected for each person who dies of COVID-19: age, race, and zip code. We demand that this information, including zip code, be released to the public each week. Release of zip codes is being resisted by the County Executive but this information must be made public. 

We demand that adequate emergency financial assistance be given to all workers who have lost jobs or income because of the virus. Other cities like Austin and Los Angeles have already launched such programs. 

We demand free universal childcare for parents who must continue to work and cannot afford the additional expense of childcare. With so many families facing this sudden, unexpected financial burden, the city must subsidize childcare. 

We demand forgiveness of unpaid utility bills and a ban on evictions in the city. People without jobs or income do not deserve utility shut-offs, mounting bills which will be impossible to pay off, or loss of their residence. 

We demand housing for the homeless. The city can partner with empty hotels, schools, and other vacant buildings to house everyone during this crisis. 

We demand that the city government coordinate and support food distribution networks to ensure that everyone is fed. We cannot expect churches, who are already suffering financially, to feed everyone who is hungry. 

We demand that multidisciplinary rapid response teams be put in place to respond to virus hotspots, especially in the 3rd District, to provide testing, education, support, and access to treatment. 

Kansas City cannot delay bold action any longer; human life and human dignity are at stake. 

With prayers for the Mayor’s and Council’s wisdom and discernment, 

Communities Creating Opportunity Board of Directors 
Reverend Susan G. McCann, President 
Danise Hartsfield, Interim Executive Director

 

 

ORIGINAL POST: Communities Creating Opportunity is calling on Mayor Quinton Lucas and the KCMO City Council to address the economic crisis wrought by COVID-19 by guaranteeing: 

1) Adequate cash assistance for those who have lost jobs or income, and those who need funds for childcare

2) Forgiveness of utility bills, not just postponement of payment

3) A ban on evictions for inability to pay rent

4) Housing for the homeless

Please SIGN and SHARE! Read our full letter below.

***

Dear Mayor Lucas and City Council Members,

Like a tsunami, a viral crisis incomparable in the last century threatens to overwhelm our country. In Kansas City, as one community with a unified humane purpose, we are following your directive to self-isolate to protect ourselves and our brothers and sisters from serious harm and possibly death.

The Novel Coronavirus has made us viscerally aware of our common humanity. We share a common threat from a virus that does not discriminate between rich and poor. However, we are keenly aware that men, women, and children who are already living with economic uncertainty will suffer a disproportionate share of the consequences of this virus. With businesses closing and jobs drying up, many workers will have no income for utility bills, rent, and food. Particularly affected will be low-wage and hourly workers. With schools closing, many children will fall through food distribution cracks and go hungry. Access to childcare for still working parents presents logistical and financial challenges. With tension and frustration escalating in households already stressed, the probability of abuse rises. In neighborhoods suffering from disinvestment and poverty, the possibility of increased violence is real. The virus has brought with it waves of moral challenges. How we respond will tell the tale of one city, or two still divided by artificial boundaries that have separated Kansas Citians for decades.

How government responds to a crisis and cares for its most vulnerable citizens is the truest measure of its efficacy and moral grounding. Missouri’s motto is: “The welfare of the people shall be the supreme law,” but the reality is that Jefferson City has done a woeful job of caring for the vulnerable in our state. In Kansas City we have made some progress toward equity, but we must do far more to care for residents in our five historically neglected and disadvantaged zip codes, where life expectancy is 17 years shorter than in neighboring zip codes. Now, more than ever, in the midst of this crisis, we need, with intentionality, to build a more equitable, just system that provides equal access to opportunity so that all citizens can prosper, a system that cares for all people and allows all people to live in their God-given dignity. We applaud the efforts that Mayor Lucas has taken to physically protect all the people of Kansas City. We now urge the Mayor and the Council to continue this good work by immediately implementing emergency measures that will ensure that the most vulnerable among us do not suffer the consequences of this pandemic. These measures must include adequate cash assistance for those who have lost jobs or income and those who need funds for childcare; forgiveness of utility bills, not just postponement of payment; assurance that there will be no evictions for inability to pay rent; and housing for the homeless. Meeting these needs immediately is absolutely critical if vulnerable populations are to survive the crisis. 

The virus is both a threat and an opportunity. This can be Kansas City’s finest hour or a missed chance to build a more equitable Kansas City. We believe it can be the former. 

With prayers for the Mayor’s and Council’s wisdom and discernment,

Communities Creating Opportunity Board of Directors
Reverend Susan G. McCann, President
Danise Hartsfield, Interim Executive Director