Reda Ibrahim has devoted his work to building affordable and sustainable housing in Kansas City. After immigrating from Egypt, he started RK Contractors LLC and co-founded the nonprofit Mercy in the City to do just that.
In 2024 new residents moved into a three-bedroom house he helped build in northeast Kansas City — one of the first new homes built in the Lykins neighborhood in decades. He didn’t just build it to be affordable. He wanted it to “pass every energy code in the country.”
He estimated that in a typical affordable home he works on in Kansas City, about 6% to 7% of the building cost goes directly to complying with the city’s energy codes. For the Lykins home it cost almost $20,000 to comply with city requirements…