KY Tenants renew call for renter protection after residents go without water for days
Heather Pechatsko had no running water from Dec. 24 to Dec. 31.
The pipes at her apartment complex off of Armstrong Mill Road froze during a bitter cold snap in late December.
Pechatsko said despite a law that says landlords must provide water, Veridian Apartments management told her they would not be providing rebates or discounts on rent or money for hotels.
Eventually, the apartments gave residents two, 1-gallon jugs of water, which was enough to flush the toilet — once. That was four days after there had been no water, she said.
“I am one of the lucky ones because I only went without water,” Pechatsko said. Other apartments in the complex have been condemned due to damage caused by busted pipes, she said at a rally Wednesday across from Veridian held by groups pushing for more protections for tenants in Fayette County.
“This is why we need a ‘Tenants’ Bill of Rights’ and stronger tenant protections,” Pechatsko said. “We didn’t deserve this treatment and no one else does either.”
Wednesday was the third protest and demonstration the group has held since October to draw attention to the plight of renters.
Officials with Veridian Apartments did not immediately return a phone call and email asking for comment.
On Thursday, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council will hold its first council meeting. Six new members were elected in November.
Matthew Williams, the vice president of the local NAACP chapter, called on the newly elected council to pass more protections for renters. The NAACP, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Kentucky Equal Justice Center and KY Tenants sponsored Wednesday’s rally.
“Our systems are failing us,” Williams said Wednesday. If people don’t have a home, they aren’t safe, he said.
“Where’s the empathy?” he said.
Some of the protections the group, KY Tenants, said they want include:
Banning discrimination based on source of income, including using Housing Choice Vouchers, commonly known as Section 8 vouchers. The anti-discrimination ban would also apply to past criminal histories, eviction history or immigration status.
Allowing tenants access to lawyers in eviction court and implementing a full-time eviction prevention program.
Seats for tenants on city boards and commissions.
Creating a city-wide registry of landlords and/or rental properties.
Last fall, former Lexington council members David Kloiber and Richard Moloney had placed parts or all of the Tenants’ Bill of Rights into committee for discussion. However, it’s not clear where that legislation now stands with the council.
Both Kloiber and Moloney left office in late December.
The group will need a new sponsor to get the bill of rights, or parts of the bill of rights, heard by a council committee.
Vice Mayor Dan Wu said the newly-elected council is still working on new committee structures. Yet there is interest in hearing more about possible protections for tenants, Wu said.
Wu said the council wants to pass legislation that makes sense and is enforceable.
“I think many of us on council are concerned with tenants’ issues and will be working on improving housing outcomes for all our residents,” Wu said. “We are taking a fairly cautious and intentional approach to creating lasting, fundable, enforceable and ultimately impactful solutions to these challenges.”
Yet, Wu said it’s likely that the council will debate each proposal separately.
“We will likely not tackle the entire set of proposals as presented but rather breaking off actionable pieces we can work on concurrently,” Wu said.
There has been some movement.
The city announced in December that it would use some of the $15.8 million in state money set aside for eviction relief to help start a program that would provide lawyers for renters in eviction court. The vast majority of tenants do not have lawyers.
Bans on sources of income, discrimination against felony convictions
Louisville has an ordinance prohibiting landlords from discriminating against source of income, including Section 8 vouchers. That ordinance, however, is tricky to enforce, some Louisville fair housing leaders have said.
Housing advocates have countered that even in cities where enforcement is spotty, those bans on sources of income help people use vouchers in neighborhoods that typically don’t take the federal voucher. In Lexington, landlords that take vouchers are often concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods.
Public housing agencies in jurisdictions with laws banning source of income discrimination had voucher utilization rates five to 12 percentage points higher than those without the laws, research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows.
Landlords who have opposed the tenants bill of rights have said it goes too far. Landlords should be able to screen applicants for prior criminal convictions to protect other tenants, they argued. Some also said during a December council meeting they shouldn’t be forced to take federal housing vouchers, which help pay for rent.
April Taylor struggled to find a place to rent after she was arrested in connection with racial justice protests in the summer of 2020. She eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor.
However, due to her past criminal history and poor credit, Taylor could not find a landlord who would rent to her despite having close to 12 months rent in hand, Taylor said during Wednesday’s rally.
“For ten months I didn’t know if I was going to have a place to live,” Taylor said. “Eventually I found good-hearted people who were willing to overlook what I had been through and gave me an opportunity to have a home. I have been in that same place since then, going on three years, and I have not ever missed a rent payment in that time.”
People who have criminal histories and spotty credit still need homes and places to live. That’s why tenant protections are necessary, she said.
Facing eviction after flooding
Loralyn McBrayer also lives at Veridian Apartments. McBrayer said her apartment was flooded on Dec. 31 after a pipe burst. On Tuesday, McBrayer was served with a 14-day eviction notice due to needed repairs at the apartment. Because the damage was extensive, the apartment could not fix the problems while she was still living there.
“I’ve already paid January’s rent,” McBrayer said.
McBrayer was able to temporarily live with a friend after water soaked the apartment. McBrayer said her attempts to get answers from Veridian about what happened and if she would be compensated for having to leave the apartment have not been answered.
McBrayer said she was frequently charged between $25 to $50 more for her monthly rent then what was on the lease. When she asked Veridian about the discrepancy, she was told she would be credited for it. Another time she received a notice about an additional $400 fee. When she asked why there was an additional fee, she could not get a straight answer.
“I was told to pay it and they would give me credit,” McBrayer said.
There is some good news.
McBrayer is eligible to receive some assistance from a city fund to help her move because the eviction was not her fault.
McBrayer and her dog are now looking for a new apartment, she said.
