A Kansas woman is facing a $500 daily fine for violating a little-known ordinance that restricts the number of people living in each house.
Ginger Kreutzer said she learned from her grandmother to be welcoming to people and has for a long time welcomed her children’s friends into her house if they didn’t have a place to stay.
“These kids all come in, and they`ll sit down and talk to me for hours about things,” Kreutzer said.
Knock on the Door
But the Overland Park resident was left stunned when she got a knock on her door earlier in September. It was a code enforcement officer who launched an investigation prompted by a complaint about the number of cars outside of Kreutzer’s house.Kruetzer had given keys to two friends of her youngest son, who graduated from high school earlier this year. They had fallen on hard times and didn’t always have a place to stay, she said.
“I just give them keys and just tell them, ‘Hey, you always have an open door here.’ I don’t want anyone out on the street or worrying about where they are staying or eating or any things like that,” she said.
After the code officer showed up, though, a letter arrived in the mail. It informed her that according to Overland Park city code, there can only be blood relatives in the house if there are five or more people living inside.
$500 a Day
It said she had 15 days to kick out anyone who is not a blood relative or get down to four people living in the home. If she doesn’t comply, she could get fined $500 per day of noncompliance.“I just kind of see it as being ridiculous that they can tell me who I can and cannot have live with me especially if they don`t have a place to go,” Kreutzer said.
“It is a scary proposition but it`s also very scary to tell somebody that they’re going to have to be on the street.”
The Kansas mother admitted that she hasn’t figured out quite what to do, though she noted that her oldest son, who had moved back home as she battled cancer, recently moved out, and one of the teenagers hasn’t been staying there that much.
“I would basically have to kick these people out and come down to four or lose my place to live, which to me seems excessive just for giving somebody a place to stay so they can go to college,” Kreutzer said.
She still doesn’t understand what the problem is: “Tell somebody they have to leave? I just don’t see why, it’s not like we are hurting anybody.”
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