LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The cost to rent, or buy, a home keeps going up.

That's adding even more strain to the affordable housing problem in Louisville.

Outgoing Mayor Greg Fischer recently announced $40 million in American Rescue Plan funding will bring seven new affordable housing developments to the city.

But this 300-home investment is just a drop in the bucket compared to the needs in Louisville. The Metro Housing Coalition reports the city needs 31,000 affordable housing units.

Democratic mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg wants to build 15,000 of these units, if elected, in his first term.

"Near improved public transportation routes, improved infrastructure, and good-paying career path jobs," Greenberg said.

Greenberg says for years, developments have been forced into certain neighborhoods. He wants to see affordable housing in every Metro Council district.

"Neighborhoods should be places where people of all incomes can live, where they can grow up, where they can raise their kids as they get more money and have an opportunity maybe to move up from rental to home ownership," Greenberg said.

Not everyone wants to see affordable housing in their backyard. Residents in Prospect recently protested a proposal that would build more than 150 of those units just off US 42.

Republican mayoral candidate Bill Dieruf, the longtime mayor of Jeffersontown, says you can't just stick affordable housing in any neighborhood.

"If you put it in a subdivision out where they don't have access to anything, you haven't helped the people that need the help get to the job, to get to the government services, to get to the medical facilities that they need," Dieruf said. "You've actually hindered them."

Both candidates hope to see more than rentals.

"Apartments should be a step, not the final verdict of this is where you're going to be. We should look into home ownership across the county," Dieruf said.

"We need to be doing everything we can to be encouraging home ownership as well so that people have an opportunity to create generational wealth. That makes neighborhoods safer, greener, cleaner," Greenberg said.

Dieruf is looking beyond the dream of buying a home to the responsibility of actually owning a home.

"So we have an insurance policy that we include with that house that is locally driven by possibly one of the non-profits. So that the person's not looking at how to make a profit, but wondering how they can help the people," Dieruf said.

There's a long way to go for the city to meet housing needs.

The housing commission says the cost of housing families with the lowest incomes is projected to be more than $4 billion.

The city's entire budget for the year is about one-third of that amount.

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