Request By:
Honorable Richard H. Nash, Jr.
Attorney at Law
235 South Fifth Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Walter C. Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in answer to your letter of December 14 in which you request an opinion as to whether the Housing Authority of the city of Louisville, created pursuant to Ch. 80 KRS, is a private or public agency.
The Municipal Housing Authority of the city of Louisville, established pursuant to Ch. 80 KRS [KRS 80.050], is undoubtedly a public agency. The Court of Appeals in the case of
City of Louisville v. Louisville Municipal Housing Commission, Ky., 261 S.W.2d 286 (1953), held that a municipal housing commission authorized under Ch. 80 KRS is a political entity and an incorporated body, which has some of the attributes of a state agency but is not a county or a subdivision of a county, a city or a town. In fact, the Court indicated that it is neither fish nor fowl, but is a hybrid agency, conceived for a purpose that was never contemplated by the framers of our Constitution under the terms of Sections 177 and 179 of the Constitution.
We believe that the terms of the statute, particularly KRS 80.050, and the Louisville case clearly indicate that the Municipal Housing Authority of Louisville is a political entity and a public agency with both state and local governmental attributes.