HB18 preempts local governments from adopting or enforcing ordinances that bar owners of housing accommodations from refusing to lease or rent to persons who receive federal housing assistance.
The Senate passed HB18 (Third Reading) on February 20, 2024, by a vote of 25 to 11. We have assigned pluses to the yeas because local governments in Kentucky have absolutely no business passing “source-of-income antidiscrimination” ordinances, and nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes the federal government’s Section 8 “housing choice voucher program.” As dishonest and manipulative tactics of government efforts to control the housing market, they unconstitutionally deny the property rights of both tenants and landlords by violating freedom of association. They prevent individuals from entering into lease agreements privately and voluntarily, according to their own terms, hindering the most qualified renters from obtaining the best housing at the best prices. The Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment were intended to promote the “General Welfare” of all Americans through safeguarding against such undue deprivations or disparagements of a person’s “liberty, or property” and guaranteeing “equal protection of the laws.”