Housing
10 homes dedicated in Mayfield for tornado survivors
Ten families who survived the 2021 tornadoes in Mayfield received keys to new homes on Friday thanks to $1 million from the Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund, Gov. Andy Beshear’s office announced.? The Hope Initiative, a coalition of local pastors and businesses, partnered to build these homes and others — a total of 42 […]
‘Effectively dead,’ housing discrimination laws in Louisville, Lexington fall to veto override
FRANKFORT — The GOP-dominated Kentucky legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill targeting local source-of-income discrimination bans just a day after the governor had issued the veto.? House Bill 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, immediately became law Wednesday because of an emergency clause in the bill.? In a gathering with […]
Beshear’s first veto would protect local housing discrimination laws
FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear told a crowd gathered to commemorate a historic civil rights march that he has vetoed a bill that would preempt local anti-discrimination ordinances.? It’s the governor’s first veto of this legislative session. Critics have warned the bill would preempt local ordinances in Kentucky’s largest cities prohibiting discrimination against tenants […]
Senate passes another bill critics say would override Lexington’s new tenant protections
FRANKFORT — The Kentucky Senate approved a House bill Tuesday that critics say would override protections for tenants against discrimination based on their source of income in Kentucky’s two largest cities. The Senate approved a similar bill of its own last month, and the debate Tuesday on House Bill 18, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Dotson, […]
When will housing affordability improve? Spoiler alert: It will take some time
Inflation is slowing and job growth has surged, but many Americans still feel the burden of expensive housing – fueled in part by high demand, low inventory and mortgage rates. Home prices across the U.S. rose 5.5% over the past year as of December 2023 and they are projected to increase 2.8% year over year […]
A bill targeting low-income housing vouchers passes Kentucky Senate
A bill that would prevent Kentucky cities from requiring landlords to accept low-income housing vouchers, something housing advocates say doesn’t happen, passed the state Senate Wednesday by a near party line vote.? The debate on Senate Bill 25 echoed much of what was heard in the House the day before as a similar bill won […]
Opponents fear House-approved bill would preempt a Louisville housing ordinance
Republican-backed legislation passed the Kentucky House of Representatives Tuesday that would ban local governments from requiring landlords to accept federal housing vouchers from tenants, something housing advocates say no local government has done.? House Bill 18, sponsored by Ryan Dotson, R-Winchester, passed 74-20 on a party line vote with the minority of Democrats repeating concerns […]
GOP bill would ban KY cities from requiring landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers. None do.
Kentucky cities could not require landlords to take federal low-income housing vouchers, also known as “Section 8” vouchers, for rent under a bill passed out of a Senate committee Wednesday. Housing and tenant advocates, who strongly oppose the proposal, say it could potentially stop efforts by Kentucky’s two largest cities to prevent housing discrimination.? Bill […]
’We desperately need something:‘ Kentucky lawmakers urged to put $200 million into housing
FRANKFORT — Without the help of a friend, Regina Quillen doesn’t know where she would go.? She lost virtually everything in her Letcher County home, a place that her father built and where she raised her children for 23 years, in the deadly flooding that hit Eastern Kentucky in July 2022.? She invested thousands of […]
States, Biden administration push efforts to aid renters, keep people housed
Maine’s housing authority received $35 million in 2023 — the first time in 54 years it has received a direct appropriation from the state budget — to help build more affordable rental housing for communities that have struggled to keep up with high housing prices. The state’s program provides funding to developers for affordable housing […]
Floodplain buyouts in Kentucky are ‘the fastest in the program’s history’
When floodwaters rushed through the town of McRoberts in July 2022, Kimberly Sapp-Allen and her husband packed what they could in their vehicles, left their home that sat along the rising creek and headed for higher ground. The floods scoured several counties across Eastern Kentucky, including Letcher County — where Sapp-Allen lives. In the end, […]
Grant will help Eastern Kentucky organization fix more houses
The Kentucky Association of Health Plans has given a $50,000 grant to Saint Vincent Mission in Floyd County, which the organization says will go toward building a new warehouse.? With the extra storage space in David, the organization says it can hold onto more materials and fix 15 more houses annually in an area that […]