LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Lexington housing advocates have rallied for months, and Thursday night they finally saw some movement.
Lexington City Council passed an ordinance banning income discrimination, a move KY Tenants has championed in their Tenants’ Bill of Rights.
“You can’t take that win away from us no matter what,” said Nikita Perumal, a core team member for KY Tenants who’s been organizing for over a year now.
Perumal said it was her own rental experience that pushed her to get involved.
“We had a property management company that didn’t care about us at all,” said Perumal, describing a time in which no working heat forced her and her roommates to live elsewhere for a week in the winter.
Now living in a new place, she realizes how good she has it.
“I feel super lucky to have a home I feel safe and secure in that's roughly affordable to me.”
Yet, for so many Lexingtonians, a safe and secure home is hard to come by.
Perumal thinks of the veterans, immigrants, recovering addicts and domestic violence survivors who have access to housing vouchers but are never given the chance to use them.
From going door to door in Lexington neighborhoods, she had a recurring conversation.
“The number of people that have been like, 'I have this voucher, I've been looking for months. My voucher expired because I couldn't find a place to take it.'”
According to the Lexington Housing Authority, in 2023, no more than 4% of housing providers in Lexington accepted section 8 vouchers.
“People don't even have a chance,” said Perumal.
Tenants’ rights could be changing after Lexington City Council passed the income discrimination ban, prohibiting discrimination in housing based on an applicant’s source of income or payment.
The Kentucky Tenants have swayed the city council, now they face an even bigger giant: state legislature.
“The people in power who don't have the rights of tenants in mind couldn't win here, so they're having to take it to the state,” said Perumal.
Already passed in the House, HB 18 would ban the exact ordinance Lexington just approved, meaning landlords could continue denying rental applications to those using vouchers.
“This big win that would've protected so many people and gotten more folks off the street and into safe housing, that would be overturned and that's completely devastating,” said Perumal.
With a right to housing hanging in the balance, the Kentucky Tenants say they’re not deterred. If anything, they’ve only just found their voice.
“This campaign gave us a lot of momentum. People are talking about tenants as a political block, city council is taking us seriously and it's only going to grow over time.”
