A new state law allows Kansas homeowners a way to more easily remove racist language from their property records. Signed into law by Gov. Laura Kelly on April 19, an amended section of House Bill 2562 makes racially restrictive covenants — such as those that exclude Black and Jewish people within homes associations deeds — unenforceable under state law. At the federal level, racist covenants in property deeds have technically been unenforceable since the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court case Shelley v. Kraemer. The new Kansas law now offers homeowners ways to remove racist covenants from their property records. This comes after the cities of Roeland Park and Prairie Village struggled for years to find ways to remove racist covenants from local property records. Last year, Roeland Park officials worked with local state legislators to introduce legislation in Topeka. Racially restrictive deeds and exclusionary covenants are still scattered across the Kansas City metro, embedded deep in the bylaws of homes associations and subdivisions’ rules. They’re no longer enforced and homeowners are often unaware they even exist, but some residents and city officials say their lingering presence is a stain on their communities. The new law largely deals with real estate consumer protection such as financial exploitation and housing discrimination. But an amendment to the bill states that any restrictive covenant in property deeds that violates state housing discrimination laws are “void and unenforceable.”
Source: Johnson County Post
