Kansas Tenant Resources
Legal help, emergency assistance, and organizing support for renters. Reach out to any of these directly. For fill-in-the-blank forms to send your landlord, see the tenant toolkit.
Help and advice
Legal representation, emergency assistance, and the handbook that explains Kansas law in plain language.
Kansas Legal Services
Free legal advice and representation for renters who meet their income qualifications.
- 316-267-3975
- Housing help
Shepherd’s Crossing
Helps tenants pay rent when they fall behind. Manhattan and Ogden residents only.
- 785-776-1470
- Website
Manhattan Emergency Center, Inc.
- (785) 537-3113
- info@mesikansas.org
- Website
- 416 S. 4th St. Manhattan, Kansas 66502
Kansas Housing Resources Corporation
- (785) 217-2001
- info@kshousingcorp.org
- Website
Kansas Tenants Handbook
Kansas Legal Services’ plain-language guide to the state’s landlord and tenant law.
Manhattan Fair Housing
Repairs and inspections
A code inspection creates an official record of what is wrong with your building — at no cost to you.
Code enforcement
Inspects your building’s conditions for free, without contacting your landlord first. They write up every violation, give you a copy, and order the repairs.
Section 8 and public housing
The agencies that administer vouchers and public housing where you live.
Local housing authorities
Administer Section 8 vouchers and public housing in the Flint Hills.
US Dept. of Housing & Urban Development
The federal agency behind Section 8, public housing, and fair housing complaints.
Reading
How tenants elsewhere understood their situation, and what they did about it. Ask your library to order any of these.
Abolish Rent
Tracy Rosenthal and Leonardo Vilchis of the LA Tenants Union on how tenants win by organizing — written for anyone fed up with the permanent housing crisis and the politics that keep it going.
City of Quartz
Mike Davis’ classic excavation of Los Angeles — who holds power over a city, how they keep it, and what it costs everyone else. Verso made it free to download after his death in 2022.
When Tenants Claimed the City
Roberta Gold’s history of New York’s postwar tenant movement, and how renters — women organizers especially — argued that living somewhere gives you a right to stay there.