LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The nation’s top housing official said the St. Cecilia Senior Housing Apartments in the Portland neighborhood should serve as a national model to help ease the affordable housing shortage.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson visited the project Wednesday to kick off a national bus tour to advocate for the elimination of regulations that dampen the availability of affordable housing.

St. Cecilia provides affordable housing to some of Louisville’s low-income senior citizens through a public-private partnership. Carson praised the groups that worked together to turn the vacant church into a senior living complex and said it should serve as a model for other communities.

“I think we made a lot of progress here, and there’s really no reason that Louisville can’t be one of the stars of the country,” Carson said.

At the same time, he said concerns about rising housing costs are worrying families, nonprofits, community leaders and businesses. Affordable housing affects everyone, especially children, he said.

“For them to have a good start in life they really need to have a stable, safe, affordable location where they can feel secure,” Carson said.

Economists have said that tight labor markets have hampered economic growth in cities including Louisville. The National Association of Realtors said that between 2014 and the third quarter of last year, Louisville fell 11 spots, to 62nd, in the association’s affordability ranking of 174 metro areas.

Lawrence Yun, the group’s chief economist, said that in many areas, including Louisville, job growth has slowed “because limited supply is making homes less affordable.

“As inventory continues to decline and affordability worsens, workers, businesses and companies are less incentivized to do business in these areas,” he said.

Carson said his bus tour aims to gather the best ideas from communities across the nation to increase the availability of affordable housing.

“When (people) don’t have a comfortable place, when they don’t know what’s going to happen the next day ... that indirectly impacts you, because it impacts their actions, and their actions impact you.

“The fewer people we have in a dependent situation, the stronger a society becomes."

Carson said a new program allowing low-income residents to buy insurance for a few dollars a month instead of putting down a large security deposit is also allowing more people to find a home. That's already happening in Cincinnati and could go national.

Carson’s bus tour will run through June.

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