The last Lexington City Council meeting of 2022 was a lengthy one. Public comments comprised much of the session Tuesday. And many of those at the podium asked for Council backing of a tenants' bill of rights. Joe Marcum is a rental housing provider with some 200 renters. He said Lexington doesn’t face many of the issues found in larger cities.
“It’s big enough, yet it still feels small. It has never been subjected to the wild swings in housing prices like coasts or other areas of the country. The majority of the rental housing providers live and work near the city. Not in some corporate office in San Francisco using an algorithm to determine their best profit margins,” said Marcum.
Marcum noted the requirements spelled out in a tenants' bill of rights would make housing less affordable. He also said an elimination of source of income discrimination would make it harder for non-voucher holders to compete for housing units.
Well over 20 people, most of them renters, spoke about concerns ranging from black mold to a lack of electricity. The proposed renter’s bill of rights calls for such things as a ban on source of income discrimination, renter representation on housing boards, and a landlord registry. Emma Anderson was one of the renters who addressed the Council.
“We want a landlord registry. Tenants should be able to know who their landlords are. They can run background checks on us so we should have an accessible way to track them and it’s all public information anyways. We want the registry to include things like code enforcement violations, tenant complaints, and eviction filings,” said Anderson.
Anderson said there’s also a need for every tenant in eviction court to have a lawyer. The bill of rights also includes anti-discrimination measures for those potential tenants with criminal and eviction records.
The Council took no action on the matter.
