Students at William Jewell College will soon move in, beginning with new students Aug. 22 and ending with returning students Aug. 25. Due to health precautions implemented to best maintain the Jewell community’s health during the COVID-19 pandemic, move-in will be noticeably different than in years past.

Before move-in, students must fill out a COVID-19 Campus Housing Screening Form no sooner than 24 hours before moving in to campus. Once on campus, instead of going straight to their residence halls, students will report to the Mabee Center – where they will be screened for temperatures and given a stamp that allows them to move into their designated residence halls. New students will also receive their iPad from the Mabee Center upon check-in.

This is the first year that Greek life and other students will not be present on new student move-in day to assist with first-year move-in. Instead, all students – both new and returning – will be able to have no more than two guests help them move in. Once screened and approved, students and their guests will make their ways to residence halls, where there will be separate staircases for entering and exiting to promote distancing.

Masks are required to be worn properly by all in attendance. Gloves, which are also required to be worn, will be passed out at check-in. Students will be given a 90 minute designated time slot to move in to ensure minimal congestion of the residence halls and adhere to capacity guidelines. Since guests are not permitted in dorms while the campus is at level B or C of the campus housing protocol, guests who are helping students move must leave campus immediately following the end of the designated 90 minute time slot.

Once students are moved in they must adhere to the housing, dining and campus policies associated with the threat level matrix – which are categorized in increasing threat from 0, A, B, C and D, with D meaning cluster cases have broken out on campus. The current threat level can be found by viewing the threat level flag placed on the quad or on the Jewell website. The color of the flag – bright green for level 0, light green for level A, yellow for level B, light red for level C and dark red for level D – will denote the current threat level and appropriate precautions to be taken.

The only new housing policy for the 2020-21 school year is the Quarantine and Isolation Policy, which was recently put out by the College. The document states that “students must be ready to act swiftly should they find themselves in one of the final two categories [exposed to, showing symptoms of or diagnosed with COVID-19]. Residential students should also have an immediate off campus housing contingency plan (return home, stay with friends or relatives, etc.) in the event of an unanticipated campus closure.”

Asymptomatic residential students who have been exposed to someone suspected to have or diagnosed with COVID-19 must temporarily relocate to a room designated for quarantine use by Jewell staff. Students under quarantine are prohibited from having visitors and can arrange for meals to be delivered to their room. If a student under quarantine does test positive for COVID-19, they must begin isolation. 

Students diagnosed with COVID-19 or another highly contagious illness must begin isolation if they are unable to leave campus. Students under isolation may leave their room only to use the restroom or in case of emergency and will have isolation room calls from the College nurse practitioner. Visitors are prohibited in both instances. Students will be released from quarantine and/or isolation following 14 days free of COVID-19 symptoms and upon permission from the nurse practitioner.  

In addition to the changed move-in and housing policies, the College is taking other steps to make campus safer as students return to campus. Plexiglass has been installed in high traffic consumer areas and in certain classrooms. All students and employees will be expected to track symptoms daily using this form. 

Two cloth masks will be provided to students upon arrival – as they are required to wear on campus at all times unless otherwise instructed – and there will be stations for disposable masks throughout campus. Custodial services will be cleaning high-touch areas at least once a day. The College is also encouraging students and employees to clean high-touch areas after each use, following the “wingtip and wipe method,” wherein one wipes down every area within reach of one’s open arms.

Testing and contact tracing will be followed throughout the semester. Testing is always available through the Clay County Health Department and is free for Jewell students. Preventative testing of asymptomatic members of the Jewell community will be directed to the Clay County Health Department to be tested. Those who are symptomatic or asymptomatic with recent exposure will be tested at either the Student Health Center or Liberty Hospital, chosen on a case by case basis. Those directed to be tested at Liberty Hospital will not be responsible for the cost of the test, according to Jewell’s COVID-19 testing policy. 

Students will be tested periodically if they are participating in activities in which facial coverings are not required and distancing cannot always be executed. According to the testing policy, students who fall under that category are those participating in “team physical exercise, athletic practices and weight training, and athletic performances in which distancing is difficult and facial coverings are not advised,” as well as those in “ensembles, rehearsals, and vocal or theatrical productions (performers only).”

To ensure these precautionary measures are effective, the College strongly suggests that all students get tested no less than 72 hours before returning to campus. 

For more information on measures the College is taking, refer to Jewell’s Campus Guide During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Eviction is a legal process in which landlords expel tenants from their properties for failing to pay the rent or violating other terms of the rental contract. Before court consideration, the dispute may be settled between the landlord and tenant. If tried in court and a judge rules the tenant guilty and must leave the property, Missouri state law dictates the eviction will remain on the tenant’s record for the next seven years.

Legally, eviction notices are duly sent and tenants are provided adequate notice ahead of courtroom summons.

Gloria Fisher, executive director of Westside Housing – a community development corporation in Kansas City – explained that tenants of Westside apartments are given about 100 days notice before being summoned to court.

“If someone doesn’t pay rent we send [them] a notice at the end of the month. […] If [we] haven’t heard from the tenant two months in a row [we] start the rent and possession process,” said Fisher.

For landlords, the process of each eviction can be costly.

“I’m out anywhere from 3-5 months rent plus the legal fees,” said Fisher. “We want the renters to pay on time because eviction is a high cost for us.”

Westside provides income assisted housing units priced between $330 to $825 per month, significantly lower than the average cost of market value housing in Kansas City. For each eviction, Westside risks losing up to $6,000 in lost rent and legal fees.

“At Westside, we’re a small not for profit and basically we need people to pay their rent every month,” said Fisher. “We’re close to downtown and not near as expensive as the market rate apartments […] people live in our buildings and they pay, that’s how we keep things maintained.”

Tenants do not always pay their rent on time. There are countless reasons for why a person cannot make their rent payments, including the loss of a job, death of a family member or unforeseen personal expense.

Cory Reames, resource development coordinator for Westside, explained that regardless of the circumstances, if a tenant cannot make their rent payment on time – or come to an alternative agreement with their landlord – they will suffer long-lasting consequences.

“It’s not criminal to be evicted, however it is criminal to not pay for what you’re responsible for paying in a contract,” said Reames. “It’s likely that your eviction status will follow you and renters will be less likely to grant you a lease […] one eviction could lead to months or years of homelessness.”

Image courtesy of Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe

Both tenants and landlords capitalize on this situation, as Fisher explains.

“There are people who plan to get evicted because it gets them three or four months of free rent,” said Fisher. “There  are landlords who, as soon as you move in, they begin the eviction process.”

Lori Wetmore, professor of chemistry at William Jewell College and member of the KC Equity Network, attested to the profitability of this business model.

“[It’s] like a revolving door, landlords seek to profit off tenants and get them evicted quickly, it’s a profitable business model,” said Wetmore.

By renting out poorly maintained properties at cheap costs and evicting residents who withhold rent in protest, such landlords profit off legally obtained payouts in local and state courts.

“The problem is that the tenant can withhold rent but then the landlord will take them to court and how will the tenant fight them? How are they supposed to pay for a lawyer or even get to court when they need to be at work?” said Wetmore.

Michael Duffy, managing attorney for Legal Aid of Western Missouri, an organization providing free civil legal assistance to low-income families and individuals, has observed the courts generally rule in favor of landlords.

“Most lawyers who appear in landlord/tenant courts on behalf of the tenant say that it’s unfair and I would agree with that,” said Michael. “There is usually very little time to prepare cases… and it is pretty typical for landlord/tenant trials to only last about 60 seconds.”

Courtesy of Sofia Arthurs-Schoppe

But the problem goes beyond preferential treatment in the courtroom. Some statutes in Missouri state law subject tenants to the mercy of their landlords, regardless of the outcome of the trial.

For example, regardless of the legal outcome of an eviction case, tenants are entitled to a return of their security deposit so long as they pay back the rent they owe. However the law states that before returning deposits, landlords may remove the cost of maintenance and repairs to the residence – meaning that tenants only receive the deposit less whatever the landlord chooses to charge for the property.

Aware of these issues, Wetmore has been active in lobbying the state government to pass the “Healthy Homes” initiative (Question 1), which was approved by voters Aug. 2018.

While the city health department usually inspects rental homes and apartments for potential health hazards, under Healthy Homes inspectors will respond to tenant complaints and will conduct unannounced visits to properties they suspect to be hazardous. The initiative will be funded by a $20 per unit annual fee charged to landlords due when they register their properties with the city.

“People can now anonymously or publically lodge a complaint about issues in their apartment and inspectors will come and then hold the landlords accountable,” said Wetmore. “[The initiative] gives some power back to the tenant.”

Dan Edwards, managing principal at Digital Builders LLC and co-founder of Movement KC – a vocal anti-gentrification and pro-affordable housing advocacy group – believes the solution to Kansas City’s housing epidemic lies on the underdeveloped east side of Troost Ave.

“We’re housing all the poor people to one side of the city and the wealthier people on the other side,” said Edwards. “I get pissed off when there’s the capacity to do more and people choose to profit off a [perceived] incapacity at the expense of others.”

Edwards advocates the construction of more market value houses on the east side of Troost to facilitate the creation of a mixed-income neighborhood in Kansas City.

The construction of such neighborhoods has been a controversial subject in Kansas City – some attribute the controversy to a cultural misconception.

“That’s how it’s understood to be, that low income is less secure or less neighborly,” said Reames.

While it has been shown that the presence of affordable housing units raise the value of nearby properties and increase diversity, miseducation creates a stigma which prevents more of these units from being built in Kansas City.

“You hear the same kind of thing: disinvestment in the urban core, schools that are broken, sidewalks that are broken,” said Fisher. “We all want affordable housing to exist, but the suburbs don’t want [an affordable housing] unit to go up.”

The issues in Kansas City are not unique. In fact, what we see here is part of a larger national housing crisis, one which affects all aspects of civilians’ lives – from safety to education, healthcare to mobility.

This crisis is undercut by the Trump administration slashing the affordable housing budget. These cuts result in a decrease in funding for organizations like Westside – which is funded by the congressionally operated Neighbor Works program.

Photo courtesy of mcdanielandscibal.com.