CURRENT CAMPAIGNS

Our community names the problems. We organize to solve them.

CUJ's issue campaigns are driven entirely by the people of Wyandotte County. Through our annual listening process, our members decide what needs to change. Some campaigns are active fights we pursue until we win. Others have secured commitments and are in a monitoring phase — we watch, and we hold officials accountable.

Active Campaigns

Affordable Housing Trust Fund

The Problem

What We Won

In 2023, CUJ organized the campaign that established Wyandotte County's first-ever Affordable Housing Trust Fund — a dedicated public fund operating within the county's Community Benefits Ordinance that directs economic development revenues toward affordable housing. The Fund is already working. Early investments include the KCK Homes for Generations Program ($75,000) and the Upper Story Housing Development Reimbursement Fund ($40,000), supporting homeownership and new residential units across the county.

What we are Fighting For

At the 2026 Nehemiah Action, Mayor Christal Watson and four UG Commissioners have committed to $2 million in annual investment into the trust fund.

  1. Commissioner Melissa Bynum - At Large District 1

  2. Commissioner Dr. Evelyn Hill - District 4

  3. Commissioner Philip Lopez - District 6

  4. Commissioner Andrew Davis - District 8

We are pushing to lock that commitment into the county budget. Economic development revenues alone are too modest and unpredictable to drive real housing development. Developers and nonprofits need guaranteed, recurring funding to plan and build. And beyond economics, this investment is a direct response to decades of redlining that stripped wealth and stability from Wyandotte County's Black and brown communities.

Wyandotte County residents cannot afford where they live. HUD's 2026 Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit is $1,197 per month — out of reach for the 30 percent of households already cost-burdened. Two out of three Black households cannot afford modest housing, a gap that traces directly to decades of federally sanctioned redlining. Meanwhile the county produces only 108 affordable units per year against a regional deficit approaching 24,000 units.