When evictions turn deadly, how a Kansas City group is working to stop a disturbing trend
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Your home is your sense of security, now imagine that going away. It’s the reality for millions of Americans facing eviction every year. Evictions are up nationwide, with rising rent and the cost of living skyrocketing.
In Kansas City, 8,300 evictions were filed last year alone, with families facing the threat of losing their homes.
Sadly, some are willing to go to any lengths to keep it Feb. 29 was a heartbreaking sequence of events that shook the Kansas City community. Officer Cody Allen and Court Process Server Drexel Mack went to serve an eviction notice at home in Independence.
Then came a deadly ambush, Officer Allen and Mack were shot and killed. Not more than a month later, east Kansas City saw another shooting – also involving eviction.
In that case, no one was hurt.
The possibility of violence is a fear Jessica Newell faces every day.
“I feel like that all week from Monday to Friday,” said Newell, when asked if she holds her breath every night until her husband walks through the door.
Jessica’s husband is a court process server for the 16th Circuit Court who worked right alongside Drexel Mack.
“I don’t think people understand how dangerous this job is,” said Newell.
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The job is defined as a support role in the legal and court system, delivering official court and legal documents, including evictions.
“It could turn volatile really quick,” said Newell. “He’s gone into I know multiple homes and found guns there. He’s had coworkers that have been shot at multiple times.”
Mariana Kotlaja, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, said shootings from evictions are rare, but cases have risen since the end of the national eviction moratorium during the pandemic.
“In the academic sphere we’ve really considered this a social crisis,” said Mariana Kotlaja. “I think it probably will get worse if you consider financial factors and inflation.”
KCTV5 dug into the numbers. National data does not track whether evictions become violent, but Princeton University’s Eviction Lab does. Since July 2021, 80 evictions have turned deadly, with more than 30 cases in the last year.
“When we look at crime in our city it clusters in about 10 percent of our city, right? The same happens with evictions,” said Kotlaja.
In Kansas City, housing pressures and violence appear to go hand in hand.
“And that comes back to disinvestment in those areas which we know is a huge problem in Kansas City,” said Kotlaja. “If we intervene in the early stages we would have better results.”
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Some groups are trying to find solutions like the United Way of Greater Kansas City’s Eviction Prevention Initiative.
“Every day in Jackson County, there are 25 households that face an eviction filing,” said chief impact officer Jim McDonald.
That is 18,000 evictions filed in Kansas City every year. The initiative provides legal counsel and rent relief from $47 million in federal funding, but it will soon come to an end.
“We expect that a year from now those dollars will be fully spent down,” said McDonald.
McDonald said that since 2020, the Eviction Prevention Initiative has helped to halt an estimated 3,000 evictions. United Way is working to identify additional funding. A new $3.3 million grant from the Missouri Department of Economic Development will at least keep the program going through 2025.
“Does it make it even more concerning knowing about the rates of eviction and gun violence growing on top of the number of evictions?” KCTV5 anchor Sharon Chen asked.
“I think it does because it just puts them all in danger more than it needs to be,” said Newell. “He could not come home. It’s just waiting, waiting for the other shoe to fall.”
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