Beshear vetoes controversial bill restricting Lexington rental law. It may not last long

Gov. Andy Beshear has vetoed a bill that would prevent Lexington’s recently passed ban on source of income discrimination from taking effect, calling the legislation “wrong” and “mean.”

“We should never make it harder for someone to obtain a roof over their head, a safe place to call home, and that’s exactly what this bill tries to do,” Beshear said from the Beecher Terrace Community Center in the West End of Louisville Tuesday morning.

“We should be working to help people — and never to harm them,” he said.

It’s the Democratic governor’s first veto of the 2024 General Assembly, but it’s unlikely to stand long given the highly partisan makeup of the Kentucky legislature.

House Bill 18 passed the House and Senate with strong Republican support, and the GOP holds supermajorities in both chambers.

Senate leadership promised an override little more than an hour after Beshear’s veto.

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House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said Beshear’s decision “comes as no surprise.”

“With today’s veto, he strikes out at the right of a property owner to make a decision about how his or her property will be used,” Osborne said in a statement. “The very idea of forcing a property owner to participate in a program runs contrary to one of the most basic and fundamental rights.

“Members will consider an override, as they have with almost every other policy vetoed by the Governor.”

Beshear said he hopes lawmakers take a second look at the bill and think about “what it would mean and who it would hurt” before deciding whether or not to override his veto.

“We’re hoping that people will look inside their heart and ultimately not override this veto, and if there is another purpose that they’re trying to seek, talk to us about it,” he said. “Let’s find a different way to do something that they might want to do, but not harm people in the process.

“Certainly we need landlords in this city, in others that passed this type of ordinance, to take these vouchers.”

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council voted in February to pass a ban on discrimination against people who use vouchers and other forms of income after months of debate and public meetings.

The ban would not require landlords to take vouchers, but would prevent them from including discriminating language in their advertising and listings.

Councilman Dave Sevigny, who co-sponsored the local source of income ban, praised Beshear for standing up for local governments.

“I applaud the common sense veto by Gov. Beshear, who seems to clearly recognize that each part of government has its role and should stay in its lane,” Sevigny said.

The Lexington ban was supposed to take effect March 1, but lawyers for the city told the council the Lexington-Fayette Human Rights Commission would not start enforcing the ban due to the Kentucky General Assembly’s final passage of House Bill 18 last week.

Lexington and Louisville passed source of income bans after people with federal housing vouchers found it difficult to find landlords that would take vouchers. Louisville has had a source of income ban since 2020.

Beshear said these ordinances are examples of local governments doing what they believe is best for residents of their respective cities.

“So in response to these two cities trying to do the right thing for their people, in response to these two local governments governing their area and no other, we now have a bill that aims to obstruct these ordinances and prevent other locations from following their lead,” he said.

Lexington homeless providers have said people are waiting months in the city’s homeless shelters or on the streets because they can’t find landlords who take vouchers. Moreover, the vast majority of people who use federal Housing Choice vouchers are Black — more than 70%, according to Lexington-Fayette Housing Authority statistics.

Yet, the majority of landlords who take federal housing vouchers are in the city’s minority and Black neighborhoods, online searches for rental apartments that take federal housing vouchers show.

Landlords pushed back against the local measure, saying they should not have to participate in a federal program that can be time-consuming and arbitrary. Taking federal housing vouchers means inspections and other red tape.

Landlords opposed to the measure approached Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris, and Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, about sponsoring legislation prohibiting local governments from enacting source of income bans. H.B. 18 is a combination of the two bills.

More than a dozen states, including North Dakota and Oklahoma, and 100 cities and local governments have enacted source of income bans to help those with federal housing vouchers find housing, according to several housing groups.

Republican proponents of the bill in the legislature argue it’s about protecting private property rights.

Beshear rejected that idea, saying the local ordinances are about preventing discrimination.

“Why should a landlord be able to say, ‘Well, I’ll take cash, but I won’t take a voucher of the same value?’” he said.