City staff and Kansas Legal Services review first year of tenant eviction‑defense pilot before contract renewal

Kansas Legal Services (KLS) staff and city officials reviewed the pilot eviction‑defense program on May 13 as the city prepares to renew a professional services contract covering tenant legal services.

Why it matters: Council members and staff said civil legal assistance can prevent evictions, keep households housed and reduce longer‑term costs; they asked KLS and city staff for more detailed metrics to evaluate program scale and outcomes before approving renewal.

Nick Blessing, a KLS staff attorney, summarized operations: KLS provides free housing legal services to eligible tenants, with the intake point often at the Limited Actions/eviction hearings at Agriculture Hall. Blessing estimated the pilot had served “dozens” of tenant households and recounted client outcomes including negotiated dismissals, a negotiated refund of about $8,500 in one case and a landlord judgment for failure to make repairs of roughly $2,200 in another. Staff said the program has advised or represented tenants who then connected to other housing services and coordinated with the city’s centralized intake.

City attorneys and staff framed the May 28 governing‑body meeting as the action day for a contract renewal. Housing services and KLS said they adjusted the staffing mix after year one: attorney billable hours were increased and paralegal hours reduced while keeping the total contract amount the same. The contract sum cited in discussion was $84,000 for the year; KLS said it did not use the full $84,000 in the first year but expects to fully utilize the funds in the second year.

Council members requested more granular data before renewal including: comparable counts of landlord‑tenant matters from the year before the pilot, a ZIP‑code breakdown of clients served, counts of eviction cases fully represented in court versus limited‑scope advice, and clearer reporting on how many incoming calls were handled via other programs. Staff committed to produce additional breakdowns for the council.

Ending: Staff indicated the renewed contract will appear on the May 28 agenda for formal action and agreed to provide the requested case‑level breakdowns and historic comparators prior to or at that meeting.