LMHA to begin relocating residents from Louisville's Dosker Manor so it can be torn down

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- After reports of mold, rodents and crime plaguing a public housing complex near downtown Louisville, moving day is coming.

Starting this month, the Louisville Metro Housing Authority will start moving residents from Dosker Manor so the building can be torn down.

LMHA surveyed the hundreds of residents who will be impacted. Many said they need help with access to medical care, groceries, and help managing money. The challenge for LMHA will be moving residents to places that meet their needs.

One of those residents is Mark Wilson.

"I'm ready to move. Yep, I'm ready to move," he said Thursday. "I like Dosker Manor, even as much as, that happens here, I still love the place."

Wilson called the public housing complex home for the past 27 years. But he said he's had it with the maintenance problems, crime, and the general odor of the place — which he said is nothing short of offensive.

"Funkier than a James Brown 8-track," he said.

LMHA is moving volunteers first, and Wilson said he's ready to go.

"It should be sometime in August, maybe late August," he said.

The waiting list for Section 8 housing vouchers is closed, and those on the waiting list may not get a voucher for three to five years. But residents at Dosker Manor are being moved to the top of the list.

"I don't decide how many vouchers we have at LMHA," LMHA Executive Director Elizabeth Strojan said. "That's out of our hands."

Over the next 18 months, close to 600 people will move from Dosker Manor. The first 100 or so will go to LMHA-owned properties around the city. The remaining 400 plus residents will go into low-income housing around the city.

"Relocations are awful. I wish we did not have to do this," said Strojan. "I don't see any other way to do it."

LMHA is paying for the move and has hired a moving contractor that will do everything for residents — pack their apartments and unpack them at their new place. If residents move themselves, they can be reimbursed up to $1,300.

"Any place will probably be a little better than this place though," said Wilson.

Wilson said he's going with the mover, and would like to buy a house. But he isn't ruling out moving back to Dosker Manor once it's rebuilt.

"I would be up for coming back, because I do love the area, the location, it is prime real estate," he said.

LMHA has 2,800 apartments across the city, and 1,500 of them are past due on their rent. But the housing authority hasn't evicted a resident for non-payment in four years.

Before residents can start moving, they have to have an arrangement to make up past due rent.

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LMHA to begin relocating residents from Louisville's Dosker Manor so it can be torn down