Now, should landlords be able to turn away tenants with rent vouchers, specifically Section eight vouchers from the federal government?

Senate Bill 25 from Senator Stephen West says yes, but some housing advocates say no.

Our Clayton Dalton has this story.

This bill is two paragraphs.

The first paragraph specifically deals with Section eight and all this paragraph states is that no city or county government can mandate that a landlord except Section eight.

And there are some moves afoot in different cities to do that.

And in my opinion, that is very dangerous for property, for banks, for landlords, and really for housing in general.

The Section eight voucher program uses federal tax dollars to help low income tenants pay their rent.

In most Kentucky cities, landlords can refuse applicants with Section eight vouchers.

However, in 2020, the Louisville Metro Council passed its Fair Housing Ordinance.

The law states landlords cannot reject renters based on the source of their income, including Section eight vouchers.

State Senator Kasy Chambers Armstrong, a Democrat from Louisville, worries Senate Bill 25 would void that provision.

But I do believe the legislation is written would invalidate Louisville's source of income ordinance.

It passed unanimously.

No one voted against it.

It had bipartisan support, and it was adopted by a local government as an important local tool to respond to an affordable housing crisis in that city.

And I heard someone here today say landlords love Section eight.

What we saw in Louisville is that was not the case.

There were listings where people would say no, Section eight accepted.

People weren't even eligible to apply for those apartments.

And we have people sleeping on the streets and not enough affordable places for them to live.

The local legislative body decided that was a policy problem that we wanted to fix and fix it in a unanimous, resounding way.

Lexington, Kentucky Second largest city behind Louisville, is also considering a ban on source of income discrimination.

Lexington council member Shayla Lynch shared why she believes the bill would do more harm than good, particularly for black Kentuckians.

In Lexington, 70% of recipients of Section eight housing vouchers are African-American.

So they look like me, 70%.

And when you look in a local newspaper or online, a listing of affordable for affordable apartment that you can rent or homes you can rent in Lexington.

They all fall in the northern part of the county.

So there's a whole part of the whole southern part of the county is not attainable for anyone with the housing voucher as it is right now.

And from my perspective, from a legal background perspective, from a fair housing perspective, that's modern day redlining.

But Senator West reinforced that for him.

This bill is primarily about property rights.

We want to protect property owners.

We want to protect landlords and make sure that they are able to the value of their property is maintained and that they are able to offer housing to to their tenants in a reasonable fashions.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Clayton Dalton.

Thank you so much.

Clayton.

Senate Bill 25 passed out of committee by a vote of 8 to 1.

Senator Chambers Armstrong, the democrat, was the only no vote.