LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville is short thousands of affordable housing units, and even though the demand is up, there are efforts underway to change that.

As someone who's been helping people get on their feet with Habitat for Humanity for years, Rob Locke has seen the issue firsthand.

"It's a crisis for anybody that feels stuck," said Locke, CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Metro Louisville. "One of the realities that is kind of unique right now is the volume of housing that's available. I mean, we are underbuilt, honestly, on all fronts, not just in the affordable area."

More than one-quarter of all city households paid more than the recommended amount for housing expenses like rent and utilities, a stat that's among a series of sobering findings from Metro government’s new report on housing trends released last month. The study evaluated 2017-21, updating a prior review that began in 2012.

In particular, it shows that there were not enough homes in Louisville for households earning up to $25,410, the lowest income group studied. The inventory lagged by more than 36,000 units, up from the roughly 31,400 needed as of 2017.

The gap narrowed for households making up to $42,350 — or 50% of the Louisville area’s median income — which need more than 14,000 units.

"The new housing needs assessment makes it clear that we have to move with an even greater urgency than we've been talking about to provide more affordable housing for folks in Louisville," Mayor Craig Greenberg said at Metro Hall last month.

Affordable housing, Greenberg said, means paying no more than 30% of monthly income on housing expenses. He has made adding affordable units a key goal of his administration since he took office in early 2023, pledging to add or keep 15,000 such units by 2027.

About 1,000 of those are dedicated to the lowest-income households, he said. 

And some state legislators are joining the chorus of those saying the city can't thrive without a change to the current reality.

"It would change the fabric of the community," Rep. Daniel Grossberg, D-Louisville, said Thursday. "Without a doubt, Louisville will survive but would be an area that has greater separation between the haves and have nots."

But the challenge facing the city is daunting. In the overall Louisville region, building permits show there were about 6,800 housing units of all kinds and price points started last year. Greenberg acknowledged that those figures are "weak" and "anemic." But he, affordable housing advocates and Metro Council members believe government-led action can help create more units.

Among those is a push for "middle housing," or duplexes and other multifamily units on land now zoned for single-family housing. A draft of new regulations to the city’s land-use plan was released this week.

And Grossberg is sponsoring several bills to address the issue on a state level, including bills that would change zoning to prioritize housing, not allow large corporations to buy residential property and hold them for long periods of time and establish a trust fund for affordable housing.

"The access to homeownership for low-income families feels it's at an all-time low," Locke said.

Until change comes, Locke said Habitat for Humanity will continue to help people achieve the homeownership dream.

"If we don't have each other at different price points in terms of income, in terms of housing, in all parts of our community, we end up lowering our quality of life," he said. "All of us do and all of us need access to a ladder to climb to a better place."

If you'd like to apply for homeownership through Habitat for Humanity, the next application period runs from April 8-13. Applications can be submitted from noon-6 p.m. daily at the Jane & Jewell Center at 1620 Columbia St. in Louisville's Portland neighborhood.

For more information on what you need to apply, click here.

Related Stories:

Copyright 2024 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.