Request By:
Mr. John E. Chowning
Executive Director
Lake Cumberland Housing Agency, Inc.
P.O. Box 161
Jamestown, Kentucky 42629
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
The Lake Cumberland Housing Agency, Inc., 1 has recently submitted an application to the National Department of Housing and Urban Development for 400 units of Section 8 existing housing. Under that program lower income housing assistance is given by HUD by subsidizing the rental payments involving existing dwellings owned by private individuals. The assistance payments from HUD go to the public housing agency designated to receive the money and distribute the money to each affected dwelling unit owner. See 42 U.S.C.A. § 1437f and 24 CFR § 882.116.
It is contemplated that under this proposed rental subsidy program, the Housing Authority of Campbellsville (a municipal housing commission created by that city under KRS Ch. 80) will act as the lead public housing agency applicant to HUD. Some 21 cities and counties have entered into an interlocal agreement with the Housing Authority of Campbellsville in order that the program can be administered throughout the Lake Cumberland Area. See KRS 65.210 et seq, and specifically 65.240. Under proposal, the Housing the proposal, the Housing Authority of Campbellsville would receive and distribute the rental assistance to the 400 dwelling owners. Technical assistance (including counseling people for the program, taking applications for the assistance and helping people find suitable housing for inclusion in the program) for 10 units would be provided by the Campbellsville Housing Authority. Technical assistance for the other 390 units would be provided by the Lake Cumberland Housing Agency, Inc.
HUD has indicated interest in the proposal, but it has expressed some reservations based upon OAG 75-406. In that opinion we concluded that a fiscal court cannot legally administer a Section 8 (rental subsidy) program except through a county housing authority established pursuant to KRS Chapter 80.
The term "public housing agency" means any state, county, municipality, or other governmental entity or public body (or agency or instrumentality thereof) which is authorized to "engage in or assist in the development or operation of low-income housing. " 42 U.S.C.A. § 1437a(6). (Emphasis added).
It is our opinion that a fiscal court would qualify as a "public housing agency", since, under the broad definition of 42 U.S.C.A. § 1437a(6), the fiscal court is authorized under KRS 67.083(3)(j) and (q) to "assist in the development of low-income housing. " (Emphasis added). KRS 67.083(3)(j) and (q) state that a fiscal court can provide "counseling services and technical assistance to residents of publicly assisted housing. " (Emphasis added). In this program local governmental units or agents will not be operating low-income housing. They will merely be furnishing technical assistance as described earlier herein 2 and will constitute a conduit for the flow and distribution of rental assistance money from HUD to the owners of the rental dwellings. Thus the concept of rental subsidy fits under the language of KRS 67.083(3)(j) and (q).
Under the broad definition in KRS 80.010(1) of "housing project" , it is our opinion that the Campbellsville Housing Authority qualifies as a public housing agency under 42 U.S.C.A. § 1437a(6). Under KRS 80.010(1), a housing project may include any undertaking providing decent, safe and sanitary living accommodations for low-income persons. The concept of rental subsidy fits under that language. It must be borne in mind that we are not dealing here with a project involving the constructioin r acquisition of housing units to be publicly owned and operated.
As concerns the Lake Cumberland Housing Agency, Inc., we assume that its articles of incorporation are sufficiently broad enough to encompass the proposed function in this program. We understand it is purely an instrumentality of the local cities and counties in the Area Development District.
We thus conclude that the proposed rental subsidy program, as it relates to the contracting units (cities and counties) of local government and their agents or instrumentalities as public housing agencies, qualifies under the Kentucky law as well as the pertinent federal statutes. Since OAG 75-406 does not make this critical distinction (rental subsidy for privately owned dwellings, as distinguished from housing publicly owned and operated), that opinion is modified accordingly.
In integrating the federal and state statutes involved here, we believe that we have accomplished that in the light of reason. See
Kirkman v. Williams' Ex'r, 246 Ky. 481, 55 S.W.2d 365 (1932) 366, stressing that it is the duty of the court to construe legislation in the light of reason and practical results of its application. It has been written that "Statutes which are enacted to relieve personal disadvantage, hardship, and suffering are generally accorded generous judicial acceptance and liberal construction." Sands, Sutherland Statutory Construction, Vol. 2A, § 58.04.
Footnotes
Footnotes
1 A Chapter 273 nonstock nonprofit corporation, an instrumentality of local government units in the Lake Cumberland Area Development District.
2 Counseling landlords and tenants about the program, taking applications, helping people find suitable housing through this program.