THE CURRENT HOUSING SYSTEM IS WORKING AS DESIGNED.
AGAINST US.
We are a tenant organization fighting to win a housing system that works for the people, in a Kentucky where everyone has safe, high quality, permanently affordable housing.
THE MISSION
Too many Kentuckians can't afford housing, are living in undignified conditions, or are being priced out of their homes, all so corporate landlords and private equity can grow wealthier from the labor of the tenants they exploit — our labor.
KY Tenants organizes the power needed to dismantle our current housing system and build a new one: one where everyone has access to high-quality housing, and where housing is treated as the human right that it is.
THE TIMELINE
2021
August
KY Tenants launches as a tenant advocacy organization led by tenants, starting with our Lexington Listening Project. We talked to thousands of community members across Fayette County about the housing struggles people were having during and before the pandemic, and what solutions they needed to see.
2022
December
KY Tenants Lexington organized our City Council Freeze Out rally, where we pushed Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council to pass our Tenants Bill of Rights.
2023
May
KY Tenants and Common Ground Kentucky launched our GrassRoots Impact Training program to meet the need for local and regional organizing trainings, with BLACK joining as co-collaborator in 2025.
2024
February
Won a ban on source of income discrimination, which Kentucky’s state legislature preempted soon after.
2025
May
Public launch of the Westminster Tenants Union in Lexington, KY. This union has gone on to win over $20,000 in repairs across the property, interpretation in the leasing office, and forgiven mismanaged backrent.
2022
July
KY Tenants Lexington hosted its first town hall on housing in Lexington, where over 90 community members gathered to voice the power-focused solutions they wanted to see in Lexington in the coming years. From this town hall, KY Tenants Lexington cut four issues for a Tenants Bill of Rights campaign in Lexington, KY in August 2022.
2023
February
Won $1.8 million in public funding for a right to counsel pilot program in Lexington. Kentucky Equal Justice Center sourced outreach coordinators to make sure people facing eviction were informed of housing resources, options on getting to their court date, and next steps, while Legal Aid for the Bluegrass provided legal support and representation.
2023
November
KY Tenants secured a public hearing on source of income discrimination ordinance. At that hearing, over 50 tenants and allies spoke in favor of the ordinance, and on greater tenant protections in Lexington.
2025
April
KY Tenants Morehead holds its first town hall, Housing in the Holler, addressing housing and the need for greater tenant protections in eastern KY.
2026
January
KY Tenants Morehead wins three additional Code Enforcement workers dedicated to inspecting residential units in Morehead and Rowan County.
THE WINS
$1.8 MILLION WON
for a right-to-counsel pilot program
>12 MEMBERS
on a Tenants’ Advisory Group for Lexington city government’s Department of Housing Advocacy & Community Development
WE WON A BAN
on source of income discrimination at the city level.
MULTILINGUAL
tenants’ union successfully organized in a federally-financed property. We're committed to making sure neighbors can communicate and strategize across language difference.
DONATE
Any size contribution is meaningful. Pitch in to fund our trainings, actions, tenant resourcing and research.
GET INVOLVED
Fight for and build a new housing system with us. We want to meet you, hear your story, and figure out what kind of action most calls to you.