KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For many workers the dream of owning a house may be slipping further away as the cost of housing increases and wages fail to keep up. In response, union and city leaders are implementing and considering policies to aid struggling workers.
In Kansas City, the price of a home has more than doubled from Q4 of 2015 to Q4 of 2025, while wages have only gone up by around 39% in the same period of time. The median listing price for a home rose to $412,485 this April, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.
Patrick “Duke” Dujakovich is the President of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO. He noted that working families are being squeezed as the price of rent and housing rise.
“Most people who are entry level or above in their careers are not able to afford housing here in the Kansas City area,” Dujakovich said. “The main reason they can’t afford housing is they can’t afford the down payment. It’s really tough, and I’m seeing people get into a spiral where they have to pay higher and higher rents which cuts into the savings they’re trying to get for the down payment.”
Along with the increase in the cost of a house, mortgage rates have also shot up. In January of 2021, the average mortgage interest rate was 2.65%, yet that number has increased to 6.53% as of May 28, 2026.
This means that workers in Kansas City are dealing with a perfect storm of higher prices, stagnant wages, and higher mortgage rates all in one.
What’s at stake
If the trend continues, it would put even more strain on Kansas City families, at a time when many are already struggling with the affordability of basic commodities from gas to groceries. It could also push workers out of Kansas City in search of more affordable housing.
Dr. Brent Never is a professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City who has researched urban and affordable housing. He noted that if costs continue to increase, the city could see workers leave.
“There are some communities where they’ve priced out workers,” Dr. Never said. “You look at San Francisco over the past 30 years, they’ve priced out normal families to the point where you have people bused in to do the work necessary to keep the city moving but they aren’t of the city so it creates a system that, in my personal opinion, is not a dynamic place.”
Dujakovich also echoed this point, pointing out that the city could see a reduced tax base if the problem continues and workers decide to leave.
“So if people move out of Kansas City to try to find lower price housing in other places we’re gonna lose that tax base in addition to workers that we desperately need.”
Councilwoman Melissa Patterson Hazley represents Kansas City’s 3rd District at large, she said that, if left unchecked, the price of housing will hurt working families.
“The effects will be more housing insecurity,” she said. “Where more and more families are a major medical bill or a car accident from losing where they live.” She also mentioned that an increase in pricing could risk workers leaving.
Veterans struggling with housing affordability
A group especially affected by the high cost of housing is veterans, with prices rising 27% of veterans are struggling to afford basic necessities.
Councilman Johnathan Duncan represents Kansas City’s 6th District, as a veteran of the Iraq War and former Director of Administrative Operations at the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he noted that the cost of housing especially affects both active duty service members and veterans.
“They have injuries due to their service to our country that prevent them from working,” Duncan stated. “And they’re on a fixed income and it’s difficult for them to find adequate and affordable housing. This is something that impacts veterans and service members alike”
According to the 2024 Point In Time Count, a federally mandated census count from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, 7% of Kansas City’s homeless population were veterans.
Teachers priced out of the housing market
Public school teachers are especially affected by the cost of housing. A poll conducted by the Kansas City Public Schools found that 76% of first year public school teachers struggled to find adequate housing, while over 50% said they were experiencing financial pressures due to the cost of housing.
David Price, the President of the American Federation of Teachers local 691 in Kansas City said that teachers are especially vulnerable to the rising cost of housing.
“Teachers, unfortunately, are in that pay range where they’re out of the range of any sort of benefits like government assistance but [they’re] just not pulling in enough money to be able to afford to live in the city. We’re hearing ranges of $1,500 to $2,000 for one-bedroom apartments in the city,” Price said.
Price also noted that teachers in the city are feeling stressed, and the high costs are preventing them from teaching their students to the best of their ability.
A 2025 study from St. Louis University stated that the teacher turnover rate for Kansas City public schools is around 23%. Meaning that almost one in four teachers will either quit, find work in another district, or switch jobs.
What the city is doing to help
Kansas City has passed initiatives to help reduce the increasing burden of housing costs for workers.
Evan Chiarelli is Kansas City’s Affordable Housing Division leader. He said that the rise in prices is due to a lack of housing supply, and that the city is trying to tackle this root cause.
“What the city has done over the last several years is they have worked to increase the supply of affordable housing for families across the city through the creation and investment of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund,” Chiarelli said.
The city essentially uses its Affordable Housing Trust Fund to give grants to affordable housing projects, as of 2026 the city says it’s given over $61 million, totaling over 3,000 units of affordable housing. Now that much of the funds are already used, the city has posted a ballot initiative for August 4 which would fund it with an extra $100 million. Chiarelli also noted that the fund gave money to nonprofits in Kansas City.
“Two great examples of this would be the Tracy Project by Amethyst Place which is located at 2770 Tracy, that’s thirty five units of permanent supportive affordable housing for women and their families who are escaping poverty, trauma, drug use, and are in need of affordable housing with supportive services. Another great example is Synergy Services Forest Hill Village which is 18 units of affordable transitional housing for survivors of domestic violence.”
The city is also considering a proposal brought by labor unions which would invest union pension money to build affordable housing in exchange for union workers building them.
Former Kansas City councilman Dan Fowler highlighted that unions will likely play an important role in reducing the burden of housing.
“One of the things that labor unions have done is increase the ability of people to afford homes,” Fowler said. “They provide people with careers and good paying jobs, if you don’t have income you can’t afford very much”
An American dream harder to reach
Despite the progress in reducing the burden of housing, the problem is still greatly weighing on Kansas City workers. With the price of housing outpacing wages and mortgage rates increasing, more and more Kansas Citians are unable to afford housing.
Dr. Never explained that having housing is essential to a person’s mobility in life, and without it the community as a whole is hurt.
“The American dream means upper mobility, it means that people can work hard, can save a little bit, can help their kids out,” Never said. “That is a great place, and when you don’t have the ability of folks to have that upper mobility you get folks that are disillusioned and not happy with their community. They don’t want to be there anymore, and it has this sort of negative feedback loop that leads to people deciding to go to other communities.”
Patrick Sanders — an Independence native — is a student journalist from the University of Missouri-Columbia writing for the Labor Beacon. Before joining the Labor Beacon, he wrote for KBIA News, a Mid-Missouri NPR-affiliated news organization. Sanders's grandfather Bruce was a long-time member of the postal workers union, and his older cousin is currently in IBEW Local 124. In his free time, Sanders enjoys spending time with friends and family, reading, and weightlifting. He hopes to bring his knowledge of policy to benefit workers in the greater Kansas City area and give working people a fighting chance.
