LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- City and community leaders announced seven projects across Louisville on Thursday that will use $40 million in federal funds to add nearly 300 affordable housing units.

The units will be specifically held for households at or below 30% of the area median income, or $28,000 per year for a family of four. The $40 million — which originally comes  from American Rescue Plan funding — was approved in the Metro Council budget earlier this year and placed in the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund to help developers build affordable housing.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said the most recent study from the Metropolitan Housing Coalition said the city was in need of about 30,000 affordable housing units. He said closing that gap entirely is estimated to cost $4 billion, but this latest investment brings a total of $116 million in his nearly 12 years in office. 

"We have a significant challenge here in our city — and in cities all across the country — with a lack of good, affordable housing," Fischer said Thursday. "For a city budget our size, (creating 30,000 units) is impossible to do all at once. But we can keep chipping away."

According to a news release from Fischer's office, below is a list of the seven projects that are funded with the American Rescue Plan money: 

Louisville Affordable Housing News Conference

City and community leaders announced seven projects across Louisville on Thursday that will use $40 million in federal funds to add 300 affordable housing units. Oct. 6, 2022. (WDRB Photo)
  • Volunteers of America/Beargrass Development:
    • $950,000 to build the 80-unit Bland Street Apartments, an affordable housing project that will include 20 units designated for permanent supportive housing
  • Housing Partnership Inc:
    • $4.8 million to convert a vacant warehouse at 1405 W. Broadway that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places into a mixed-use development providing 111 one-bedroom and five two-bedroom apartments for seniors, along with one floor of commercial and office space
  • LDG Development LLC:
    • $4 million to build The Eclipse, a 280-unit apartment community serving working class families in the Russell neighborhood of west Louisville, including former Beecher Terrace residents
  • Louisville Metro Housing Authority:
    • $11.8 million to build the 60-unit, three-story Iroquois Senior Living Community
  • New Life Directions Ministry:
    • $4.4 million to build and operate 20 permanent supportive housing units for homeless single mothers and their children. River City Housing Inc. will be the project developer
  • REBOUND Inc.:
    • $5.2 million to build Portshaw, a 38-unit affordable housing development on a vacant parcel in the Shawnee neighborhood
  • Wellspring Ky.:
    • $8.2 million to purchase and rehab existing multi-family properties, and provide 50 new units of affordable housing along with supportive services

Christie McCravy, executive director of the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, said construction will begin on all seven projects within the next months, and each one already has specific deadlines to meet requiring them to be completed in the next three years.

"The focus is — and always has been — for the trust fund to have a dedicated source of funding," McCravy said. "However, it's difficult in Kentucky due to our state law and the powers that delineate what Metro Council can do versus what has to go from the General Assembly."

McCravy said there's a gap in funding for these types of projects, because lenders will only give so much to develop a rent-restricted property. That means government grants and funding are often relied upon to fill the need.

"We're just going to, as the mayor said, keep chipping away at it within the laws that are determining how we can get money out," she said.

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