LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A bill that could change how Kentucky's cities handle discrimination rules over housing passed out of the Kentucky Senate on Wednesday.
Senate Bill 25 would allow landlords to say "no" to tenants who need to use housing vouchers.
A Louisville ordinance passed unanimously in 2020 prohibiting landlords from discriminating against renters based on source of income. Lawmakers in Lexington are considering a similar ban.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Ryan Dotson (D-73) calls the ordinances government overreach.
“I’ve talked with some landlords. I’ve met with some landlord associations and many of them are just pulling up stakes out of Louisville, pulling up stakes out of Fayette County because they don’t want to deal with this,” he said. “It’s a blatant government overreach.”
As Lexington councilman Dave Sevigny explains, he said their drafted ordinance calls out forms of indirect discrimination – meaning landlords can’t say they don’t accept vouchers as their single method of removing a possible tenant from their applicant pool.
“It is nothing more. Nothing forces a landlord to enter into the partnership with the government if they don’t care to,” he said.
Supporters of this bill say those ordinances are government overreach, which opponents say this bill unfairly targets people who hold Section 8 vouchers.
"I hope we can all agree that a person shouldn't be discriminated against just because of the source of their income. That a person who is taking advantage of government programs like section eight to better themselves in their family shouldn't be treated any differently," Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong (D-19) said.
"If a landlord is forced by the government to take Section 8 payments, that is an abridgment and absolute insult to those rights enshrined in the Constitution. We're talking about source of income, but section eight payments are not, they're not income, they're transfer payments from the government via the tenant to go to the landlord," Sen. Damon Thayer (R-17)
The bill now moves to the Kentucky House; however, House members passed their own, similar legislation on this on Tuesday.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.