The Human Rights Commission will have a community forum to discuss housing concerns, including landlord and tenant laws, at 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 14, at Grace Episcopal Church, 216 E. Sixth St.
Citizens are invited to hear from landlords and tenants who will share their experiences and describe challenges they have faced.
“Community leaders will also be present to answer questions,” HRC said in a Facebook post.
HRC staff and board members have studied housing issues in Hopkinsville and Christian County for several years.
The agency reported in 2018 that it had been tracking housing evictions in Christian District Court for approximately two years.
“The HRC estimates over 1,000 tenants are evicted each year and over 8,500 lives impacted county-wide. In addition to impacting the lives of individuals and families, evictions have an exponential impact on family stability, crime and educational achievement,” officials said in an op-ed published in the Kentucky New Era in March 2018.
Bernard Standard, who was then HRC’s executive director, and others on the board asked Hopkinsville City Council to revise the city’s landlord/tenant ordinances and code enforcement program. Specifically, the agency wanted city council to adopt a Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant Act, better known as URLTA.
However, faced with opposition from several landlords, council members declined to advance the measures during a July 2018 Committee of the Whole Meeting.
Those planning to attend Monday’s forum may register online. The forum will be in the church’s All Saints Hall.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
