Members of Louisville’s Anti-Displacement Commission met for the first time Tuesday afternoon.
The meeting was a long time in the making. The Louisville Metro Council passed the Anti-Displacement Law nearly two years ago. It directed city officials to work with researchers to develop a tool that could analyze proposed developments and determine if they were likely to displace neighborhood residents through higher rents or property taxes. Any project that would lead to displacement would no longer be eligible for public funding.
City workers began running projects through the assessment tool a few months ago. And after commissioners and advocates accused Louisville Metro of dragging its feet on implementing the law, officials finally set a date for the Anti-Displacement Commission’s first meeting.
Evan Bradley, who was elected chairman by his fellow commissioners Tuesday, said everyone is eager to start digging into how the anti-displacement tool is affecting the city’s funding decisions.
“I’m mostly just looking forward to having working class people, people from poorer backgrounds, having a seat at the table when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of these programs,” Bradley said.
The commission is made up of nine members, each living in areas where residents are most at risk for displacement, also referred to as gentrification.
Moving forward, Louisville’s Anti-Displacement Commission will meet once a month. They’ll receive regular reports from the Office of Housing and Community Development showing all of the proposed developments that have been run through the assessment and the determination of whether they were likely to displace residents. The commission will also be told whether the developer agreed to make any changes to the project in order to receive city funding.
The city had used the tool to evaluate two projects as of August. One required no changes to be eligible for funding. The other, according to officials, required the developer to lower rent on some of the apartment units so that they’d be affordable to existing residents.
“Having this tool, having a tracker on where that funding is going, I’m hopeful that we’ll see better outcomes and more effective outcomes from Metro processes,” Bradley said.
In addition to tracking the use of the tool, the Anti-Displacement Commission will review investigations into discrimination against residents or businesses. The city’s Human Relations Commission will conduct the investigations and the Anti-Displacement Commission will recommend any changes to local law that may be needed to address the violations.
The commission is also tasked with referring residents or businesses who are discriminated against to available resources, like down payment assistance or home repair funds.
Jessica Bellamy, a tenant organizer with the group PUSH Louisville, advocated for Metro Council to pass the Anti-Displacement Law in 2023.
Bellamy said she’s excited about the commission working with the city on its housing needs assessments, which are conducted every five years. The assessments show how many units of affordable housing Louisville needs to build to meet the needs of its lowest income residents.
“The Metropolitan Housing Coalition just came out with a report that’s looking at how utility costs affect housing stability,” she said. “I think there’s things like that that we aren’t thinking about that show how vulnerable so many Louisvillians are.”
Bellamy said that with President Donald Trump’s administration eyeing potential cuts to affordable housing programs, it's important the city use its limited resources on the right projects.
The Anti-Displacement Commission’s next meeting will be Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. in the Old Jail Building downtown.
