LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A few years ago, Deborah Hall ended up homeless in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. Evicted from her apartment, she lived "place to place" for a year, one of the toughest times of her life, she said.

"I was starting to run out of places to go," Hall said Tuesday. "I was ending up in seedy places."

But five months ago, she moved into the Arthur Street Hotel just off Interstate 65 near the University of Louisville campus. Hall said the day she moved in, someone knocked on the door and handed her food.

LDG Development — a company with at least 10 projects around Louisville in which it aims to address the city's affordable housing shortage — purchased the hotel last year and formed a partnership with Feed Louisville. Together, the groups are working to transition people from the streets to permanent housing.

"We've probably pulled a couple-hundred people off the street," said Donny Greene, co-founder of Feed Louisville.

Greene, who oversees the program with LDG, said there are a lot of myths about the homeless community.

"One is that homeless people don't have jobs. They do. Lots of them do," Greene said. "There are lots of folks who also face a lot of barriers because of mental illness and mental health issues."

People who come in off the streets are assigned a care representative who helps them get treatment and transition into permanent housing.

After being evicted more than a year ago, Hall is now just days away from a permanent home.

"It was frightening. I didn't know where I was going to go," she said. " (Now), I'm waiting on the key to the door."

LDG is donating all of the funding but they're hoping to eventually get some help from other businesses. 

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