Is it time for Lexington to enact a ‘Tenants’ Bill of Rights’? Council weighing some ideas
A group of tenants wants Lexington to enact a “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” to protect renters in an increasingly tight and pricey rental market.
At a rally Thursday afternoon at the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse square on Main Street, several tenants said it was past time for Lexington to enact ordinances giving tenants certain protections.
Stephanie Hensley rented a Lexington apartment that she said was full of mold. The refrigerator and the freezer weren’t cold enough to keep milk cold for the mother of four’s kids. Hensley just had a baby. She was told by health officials to move out of the apartment because of the mold.
“We left with just the clothes on our backs,” Hensley said.
She now rents a two-bedroom apartment for $840 a month. Her fiance works two jobs to pay the rent.
“I don’t want mothers to feel like they’re going to be homeless,” Hensley said of why she supports more rights for renters in Fayette County. Places that are often affordable aren’t well-kept or safe, she said before the Thursday’s rally.
Hensley and other tenants also spoke before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council’s Thursday meeting.
Some of the protections the group, KY Tenants, said they want include:
- Banning discrimination based on source of income, including using Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers. The anti-discrimination ban would also apply to past criminal histories, eviction history or immigration status.
- Allowing tenants access to lawyers in eviction court and implementing a full-time eviction prevention program.
- Seats for tenants on city boards and commissions.
- Creating a city-wide registry of landlords and/or rental properties.
Rising rents and complaints
Rents have spiked across the country over the past two years. As cost of living has increased, so have tenants rights groups like KY Tenants.
Monthly rents in Lexington have increased as much as 40% for a one-bedroom apartment in some areas, making it one of the cities with the largest increases in rent in the country, according to recent Rent.com report.
From August 2021 through February 2022, KY Tenants said it had conversations with 1,500 tenants. More than half — 67.5% of the renters surveyed — said that housing is not affordable for most people in their communities.
Some of those comments collected by the group and published in a 2022 report include:
“It is fairly common to get hit with a $90 to $100 a month rent increase every year in Lexington, which is almost unheard of in most parts of the country. That’s why renters tend to move a lot in Lexington.”
Others said that affordable rental units are often not well maintained.
“Landlords are slow to make repairs for literally anything related to the house and always use the cheapest possible solution which leads to needing more repairs in the near future,” said another respondent.
The group then asked what types of changes were needed to keep people housed.
Some of the group’s recommendations are based off of ordinances Louisville has passed.
In 2020, Louisville passed an ordinance that banned discrimination based on sources of income, meaning landlords could not deny Section 8 vouchers. However, the Louisville Metro Human Rights Commission, which is tasked with investigating discrimination claims, has very little funding to investigate source of income complaints, housing rights groups have said.
The ordinance was meant to make sure Section 8 vouchers could be used across the city. In Lexington and Louisville, landlords that take those federal vouchers that pay for rent are often concentrated in low-income neighborhoods.
Housing Advocacy and Community Development Commissioner Charlie Lanter said there are studies that show cities that ban discrimination based on income source, like Section 8, see much fewer landlords discriminating against people with Section 8 vouchers.
Lanter said the city has very few private landlords that take Section 8 federal vouchers.
The city has used $41 million of federal coronavirus relief money to stop evictions during the pandemic. It recently received an additional $6 million from the state to continue the program that helps people pay past-due back rent. That program should be made permanent, the tenants rights group said.
The city should also look at providing legal counsel for those in eviction court. Louisville provides lawyers for some tenants facing eviction. Nationwide studies show 1% of tenants are represented by lawyers in eviction court. Meanwhile, 90% of landlords are often represented.
Lexington is considering some aspects of the KY Tenants plan
Lexington-Fayette Urban County Councilman David Kloiber, who is also running for mayor against incumbent Linda Gorton, has put the issue of source of income discrimination in the council’s General Government and Social Services Committee for discussion. Kloiber said Thursday a date to discuss the issue has not been set.
Kloiber said he decided to break out the issue of discrimination from the bill of rights because it can be easily modeled after Louisville’s ordinance.
Councilman Richard Moloney Jr. has put the Tenants Bill of Rights into committee as well for discussion.
Moloney said as rents have increased, so have complaints from tenants about living conditions.
“This is different than what we were dealing with years ago with (rental apartments) around the University of Kentucky,” Moloney said. “People are too afraid to call code enforcement on their landlords because they are afraid of getting kicked out.”
Moloney said he hopes the entire Tenants Bill of Rights will be heard in coming months.
Moloney is running against six others, including current Councilmen Chuck Ellinger Jr. and James Brown, in the at-large race. The top vote getter on Nov. 8 will become vice mayor. The next two vote getters will serve at-large.
Brown said he supports creating a rental registry so the city can better track rental properties. The 2018 Comprehensive Plan, which guides growth in Fayette County, recommended the creation of a rental registry to better track landlords. Another commission looking at gentrification and housing, which Brown chaired, also recommended the creation of a rental registry.
Brown said the city is still trying to tackle licensing for short-term rentals, such as Airbnbs. That must be completed first before the city can get to the rental registry. Brown said an update on that effort is expected on Tuesday.
KY Tenants said some features of the rental registry could include complaints, and code enforcement violations for each landlord available so renters can make informed decisions.
Officials with a group representing rental properties did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
