By Dion Lefler
Tribune News Service
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly has quietly signed a sweeping executive order freezing mortgage foreclosures and rent evictions in Kansas during the global coronavirus pandemic.
“This administration will do whatever it can to assist Kansans in these challenging times, and that includes allowing Kansans to retain their homes and businesses to avoid immediate danger to their health, safety and welfare,” the order reads.
“In order to mitigate the economic effects of the spread of COVID-19, I hereby direct and order all financial institutions operating in Kansas to temporarily suspend the initiation of any mortgage foreclosure efforts or judicial proceedings and any commercial or residential eviction efforts until May 1, 2020,” the order continued.
The document was signed and filed with Secretary of State Scott Schwab on Tuesday, but was not announced by the governor or her office.
No one from the governor’s office could immediately be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Kelly held a news conference Tuesday, but the focus was on another executive order she issued closing all K-12 schools for the rest of the school year due to the virus threat.
The anti-eviction order did not appear on the governor’s website Tuesday and its number, Executive Order 20-06, was skipped in a list of orders issued by Kelly.
It was briefly mentioned by title only at Tuesday’s session of the state House of Representatives, during the clerk’s routine reading of the list of communications received from the governor’s office.
The order came the same day that Alexander Vulgamore, a kitchen worker at The Wave venue in Wichita, came before the City Council with a request for a city freeze on evictions, because of the large number of service industry workers idled by the stay-at-home orders to fight the spread of the virus.
Vulgamore said many restaurant and bar workers, especially those who receive part of their pay from tips, have either lost their jobs or a significant part of their income and will find it difficult to impossible to make their rent this month.
City staff discovered the existence of the governor’s order while researching whether the council could grant Vulgamore’s request.
“Moving forward after he spoke, we found out that the governor put a stop to all evictions, so no one will be evicted during this time,” said Mayor Brandon Whipple.
Whipple said he was pleased that the governor took action before the city had to and later thanked her in a social media post.
Contributing: Jonathan Shorman