Housing

Molly McGovern spoke of the county’s “good, broad housing market with a lot of price variants” and argued that this was “a good thing for a lot of business jobs types to be created.”

“We need to continue to work on a variety of housing ranges that mix opportunity throughout the county,” added Jan Kauk, president of the Board of Education for the North Kansas City School District, “so that we can make it affordable for everyone, including our teachers.”

Of North Kansas City Hospital’s 2,400 employees, 70 percent of them live north of the river. “That’s a pretty substantial number,” said David Carpenter, CEO. “That’s growing rapidly. It didn’t used to be that way.” Carpenter is encouraged by the trend among physicians to move north, but agreed that there are some “issues on the lower-end housing side.”

In Liberty, Bob Steinkamp saw the need for both high-end and low-end housing as the middle range is pretty well taken care of. “I think we do a good job of serving the middle sector,” he noted.

Pete Hall saw the need to convert some of the older rental properties, particularly in the southern part of the county, “prime for affordable housing,” to owner-occupied homes. 

Tim Kristl questioned whether the affordable housing built recently in North Kansas City had proved successful. As Gene Bruns responded, the question wasn’t whether it was successful but whether it was really affordable. The only affordable housing in existence in North Kansas City, he argued, is the older housing, “what’s already built.”

“We need more [affordable housing],” said Wayne Cauthen. “I hope that we don’t make the mistake other cities have made,” he added. “That is, basically dealing with housing at the upper ends and not dealing with housing at the lower ends.”

Labor

“If you build it, they will come,” said Bill Cross. “The labor pool will show up, as many as we need, particularly for certain industries.”

One testament to the quality of the county’s labor pool is the major Ford plant in Claycomo. Tim Kristl noted that Ford has a lower labor cost at Claycomo than almost all of the others, largely due to workforce productivity. “There is a good work ethic, and a good quantity of work that’s being done at a low labor cost from a per car standpoint,” he observed.

Jeff Samborski, economic development director for the City of North Kansas City, spoke of the inquiries he had been receiving from workers based in California. “They can’t afford the housing there, the congestion, the two hour commute to work and back.” Samborski sees the opportunity here, given the labor supply, to recruit high-tech businesses. “Cerner is a big tool for us around the table to use,” he added. “These people, programmers, these high-tech laborers and skilled people are ready to move to the Midwest. We just need to provide them a place to work and convince the decision makers that this place will attract those people and sustain a business.”