Lexington is doing what is best for Lexington. Why is Frankfort trying to stop us? | Opinion
Most communities thrive on the things that make them unique, and each one of our commonwealth’s counties have their own identity and unique challenges. What works in Fulton County, might not work in Floyd or Fayette. Local governments realize that.
In Lexington, we recently passed an ordinance that identifies a Lexington specific form of discrimination that is occurring in our local housing rental market. The ordinance identifies different sources of income or payment that landlords consider, but the one getting all the attention is stopping a practice of local landlords advertising “I don’t accept vouchers” as their single method of removing a possible tenant from their applicant pool.
Our intent is to point out that a $1000 voucher is the same as a $1000 in another form of payment. A landlord still has property rights, still controls how much they rent a property for, and can set the terms and conditions for rental, vetting their tenants in a whole myriad of ways-but still must abide by federal and state Fair Housing Law which stipulates things they can and cannot do. In Lexington, we are just trying to solve what is a local issue by clarifying this form of indirect discrimination, which is already prohibited by state law.
Our council has spent almost two years deliberating, holding public hearings, and of course has had individual conversations with staff, support organizations, tenants, constituents and landlords. We’ve spent that amount of time because it required plenty of thought on how to be the fairest to both the tenant and landlord communities. And localities like Lexington can make these community-based decisions better than anyone else.
Local governments get deeply involved with the nuances of local issues. We listen and live with constituent’s grass roots issues over the long term. We are widely accessible, meet regularly, discuss often, gather lots of input and eventually attempt do something that benefits the population of our small communities as a whole, and not just one part of it. We take the time needed to deliberate and pass reasonable policy that is pertinent to our locality.
There are currently several bills at the state level which were launched in January as a direct result of us trying to fix this local discrimination issue. While I appreciate the attention to the cause, bills that get approved with little vetting of the entire community we are all trying to help can create unintended consequences and confusion.
The legislative process at each level of government is extremely important and needed. We live in a democratic system that allows each government level to carry the burden and responsibility to do the best they can for the overall population they serve. I believe that federal and state government should legislate and support at macro levels-they are best equipped for that, they have bigger staffs and larger budgets and can make true life altering impacts across an entire jurisdiction. At the city and county level-we will continue to focus on the micro level of solving problems that are unique to our communities-staying in our lane and striving to make each unique locality the best part of our Commonwealth and nation they can be.
Dave Sevigny is the LFUCG 10th district councilperson and a co-sponsor of an ordinance that was enacted Feb 15, 2024 that would eliminate a form of indirect tenant discrimination known as “Source of Income”.