Neither a central Kentucky housing advocate nor a landlord expect a major increase in evictions in the coming months. This, despite a U.S. District judge ruling Wednesday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention exceeded its legal authority by imposing a national eviction moratorium during the COVID 19 pandemic.
Even if the national pause ceases, Art Crosby with Lexington’s Fair Housing Council said Governor Beshear’s eviction moratorium would stay in place until the end of June. And Crosby noted the processing of federal dollars to help tenants and landlords is beginning to work better. “You didn’t already have a system to distribute millions of dollars to landlords before, so they’re all ramping it up and I think they’re all in a pretty decent place now where the money is going out the door pretty quickly to try to help those landlords who haven’t been getting their rent paid,” said Crosby.
Jim McKenzie with the Lexington Landlord Association said it’s taken a while to work out logistics in getting federal money to property owners. He said evictions are a bad outcome for all involved, tenants and landlords. “It’s not like somebody you don’t know. We know everybody. We take care of each other. Tenants and landlords take care of each other, of course. They work back and forth. But, nobody wants to go through an eviction on any level. It’s horrible. It’s horrible,” added McKenzie.
The cities of Lexington and Louisville have had their own rent assistance programs.
Here's More With Lexington Fair Housing Council's Art Crosby:
Here's More With Lexington Landlord Association's Jim McKenzie:
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