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Low-Income Property Developer Files Fair Housing Complaint Against Kansas City

A Maine-based development company that owns several low-income housing units in Kansas City, Mo., filed a federal fair housing complaint against the city Thursday.

The Eagle Point Companies alleges the city and various city officials intentionally discriminated "against African-Americans who reside and/or who seek to reside in Bainbridge, Georgian Court and Linda Vista Apartments located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Kansas City, Missouri," according to the complaint.

The dispute stems from a 2013 blight study that concluded while the three Eagle Point buildings are in good structural condition, high crime rates along Armour Boulevard make the properties a "social liability." The company, which contracts with a private security firm to oversee the three buildings, says calls reporting crimes have actually decreased over the past five years. Eagle Point has managed the properties since 2006.

Eagle Point claims the city has been working to force low-income residents who rely on Section 8 housing from the up-and-coming neighborhood for the past three years. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rejected the city's blight study earlier this year.

City spokesman Chris Hernandez says the city is reserving comment until officials have had a chance to read through the documents Eagle Point filed with HUD. Calls to the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association for comment were not immediately returned.

Elle Moxley covered education for KCUR.
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