Louisville leaders hope new Community Care Campus will solve 'urgent' homelessness issue

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville announced 12 goals Thursday for its planned Community Care Campus in Old Louisville, including opening a new family emergency shelter with rooms to house 34 families at a time.

Volunteers of America will help run the campus, which is planned after the city spent nearly $7 million to purchase a few buildings just off of South Floyd Street and East Breckinridge Street in May. Those buildings include the Vu Hotel and Guesthouse, the C2 event space and a few other locations.

"There is no question that the issue of homelessness is one of the most urgent and critical issues facing our city," Jennifer Hancock with VOA said in a news conference Thursday.

In their place will be the Community Care Campus, which is meant to care for homeless people who are too well to be in the hospital but too sick to be on the streets.

"We need a medical respite facility so that when individuals who are homeless are discharged from the hospital, they have a place to go," Mayor Craig Greenberg said Thursday.

Last year, nearly 11,000 people were homeless at some point in Jefferson County, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. A majority of that homeless population is clustered around downtown Louisville, which was why the location at South Floyd and East Breckinridge streets was chosen for the campus.

"Those of us who work downtown or live downtown have seen how homelessness has increased in both volume as well as the intensity of needs," Hancock said.

According to the Coalition for the Homeless, one-third of the homeless population has some sort of physical health issue, so there is a need for their housing and medical challenges to be treated in a single space.

"Right now, on any given night, we have approximately 15 families on a waitlist to get into a shelter. And that's unacceptable," Mayor Craig Greenberg said. "We want to do a better job for our families and children so they don't have to sleep in cars or under bridges or on sidewalks."

In the city's latest effort to treat the symptoms of homelessness and get people into temporary and, eventually, permanent housing, the city and VOA laid out 12 goals for the Community Care Campus:

Provide a campus management team to manage the entire Community Care Campus to ensure Metro’s goals and outcomes are met
Relocate VOA Mid-States headquarters to the campus and provide touch-down spaces for community partners to serve those residing on the campus
Partner with local healthcare agencies to provide medical respite for up to 30 people at a time
Remove the old laundry and transform it into an outdoor open space for communal gathering for those working and living on the campus. Later plans for a social enterprise or other community needs are possible.
Opening a Family Emergency Shelter with rooms for 34 families
Provide individualized case management, housing placement, and other supportive services to assist Louisville families return to stable housing.
Reduce the number of unsheltered families in Louisville
Remove the warehouse and replace it with approximately 80 units of permanent affordable housing
Evaluate church for onsite social enterprise and develop plan
Develop an asset map and needs assessment to determine additional community needs
Develop and execute a business advisory council to include the creation of an engagement strategy for the larger business community which would include their participation in supporting the C3 operations, public policy matters, and other related advocacy as opposed to a diffused and fractured response
Initiate a SWOT analysis and strategic planning process to determine potential future uses of the space

"We have also included three other priorities: eviction prevention, medical respite and emergency shelter," Harris said.

VOA estimates the new family emergency shelter at 822 S. Floyd St. will be able to serve 34 people per month, a number that could fluctuate based upon how quickly families are able to transition to permanent housing. To best fit the campus' benefits to the citizens who need them most, community activists will target families experiencing homelessness, those those who qualify for affordable housing and homeless individuals leaving hospice care who will continue to need short-term medical care.

VOA expects to hit the following six benchmarks through its initiatives at the campus:

85% of families will exit the program to stable, permanent housing
75% of households will obtain and maintain stable income through employment/education/disability
85% of children served will be assessed for special needs through Special Needs Identification and Enrichment Program
For Respite center: decreased hospital readmissions, fewer overall hospitalizations, improvement in acute symptoms and increased access to housing and income. Also, nursing care to extend to serving families in shelter as appropriate
Campus management: provide operational oversight and a clean, safe and sanitary environment for all residents, staff, visitors
Relocate the Louisville-based VOA headquarters including HR, External Relations and Finance teams, as well as overall security, marketing and communications, along with facility and grounds maintenance

"We simply need more affordable housing across our city," Greenberg said. "That's the ultimate goal."

Harris said the Community Care Campus will address this by providing respite care 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The plan is for the C2 building to provide services, the Vu Hotel to house families and the guesthouse will provide 24/7 health care similar to a nursing home.

Project leaders don’t have a timeline for when the community campus will open, but they're prioritizing the family shelter. They hope to start construction in a few months.

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