The City of Shawnee, KS recently voted unanimously to pass a ban on co-living rentals. This ordinance bans living arrangements of four or more people who are unrelated in a dwelling unit. Even if just one of the four residents is unrelated to the other three, the entire group will be considered "unacceptable." 

This will have huge ramifications for people who rely on multi-family housing arrangements to merely survive, especially as affordable housing becomes even more of an issue, and especially in Shawnee. We cannot allow this ordinance to go unchallenged as policymakers in other cities across the state and country watch.

Residents in Shawnee specifically suffer from a lack of affordable housing, with 48% of renters spending 30% or more of their income on housing (KCTV5). While possibly intended to target companies that provide leasing arrangements, this overbroad ban fails to solve the larger housing problem in this city and even threatens that more people will be affected. The ordinance is even more short-sighted by the governing body of Shawnee, which is in the Kansas City metro area and part of the long history of economic and racial segregation.

Read the city's memorandum with the proposed ordinance changes here.

Coverage from:

• KCTV5: Co-living in single-family homes under scrutiny in Shawnee
• The Kansas City Star: Co-living rentals banned in this Johnson County city after unanimous council vote
• KCTV5: City of Shawnee bans co-living rentals
• Shawnee Mission Post: Shawnee prohibits shared room rentals in residential areas of city
• KSHB 41: Shawnee City Council votes to ban co-living rentals
• KSN: Kansas town bans co-living in homes
• Fox 4 KC: Shawnee updates code to prevent one-room rentals in single-family homes
• Cracked: A City In Kansas Just Made Roommates Illegal
• Business Insider: A Kansas city voted unanimously to ban co-living rentals, effectively making roommates illegal in some zoning districts
• The Pitch: Shawnee bans co-living spaces for non-related tenants in baffling move
• The Kansas City Star Editorial Board: Shawnee's ban on co-living rental homes is exactly what 'criminalizing poverty' means
• Good Government Kansas blog: The Real World: Aftermath
• KCUR 89.3: an on co-living thrusts Shawnee into the national spotlight — here's what it does
• The Kansas City Star: Did Shawnee really ban roommates? Here's what the new 'co-living' restrictions mean
• The Kansas City Star: Residents push back on Shawnee's co-living ban
• Planetizen: Co-Living Banned in Shawnee, Kansas
• Next City: Housing in Brief: A City in Kansas Just Outlawed Having Too Many Roommates
• The Sentinel: City of Shawnee Votes to Make Housing More Expensive
• KCUR 89.3: Shawnee residents petition city council to reconsider co-living restrictions
• The Kansas City Star:

  ‘I got this one wrong’: Shawnee councilmember asks colleagues to reconsider co-living ban

• MAREI: With Roommates Now Banned, How Does Shawnee Enforce the Rule

Note: This petition and the organizers are not associated with and do not endorse any candidate or campaign for elected office.