Task Force Members Learn About Kentucky’s Housing Shortage

Task force members learn about Kentucky’s housing shortage

In Lawrence County it is next to impossible to find low rent housing 

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 25, 2024) — The Kentucky Housing Task Force, a new legislative panel focused on solutions to housing shortages, heard from several state officials Monday about efforts to address the problem.

Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, was among those who had questions for officials from the Kentucky Housing Corp., the Kentucky Center for Statistics and the state’s Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction.

“There’s a lot of different spokes to this. It’s no certain, no one thing can solve this problem. It’s going to take a lot of different folks – like I said, a lot of partnerships and the private sector really has to step up and start working on this,” he said.

Wendy K. Smith, deputy executive director of Housing Programs for the Frankfort-based Kentucky Housing Corp., said it’s vital for the housing supply in Kentucky to be a main focus instead of niche or secondary housing issues.

She and others presented information from the first phase of the Housing Supply Gap Analysis, a study commissioned by the KHC and released in April.

“In our view, the housing supply shortage is Kentucky’s most urgent issue,” she said. “What we’re seeing is while Kentucky Housing for 50-plus years has been investing in affordable housing, because there’s not enough supply in the overall marketplace, we’re losing ground in serving the folks we try to serve.”

Smith said all of Kentucky’s counties need housing, and if enough supply existed, the state would have lower average housing costs.

“Supply will bring down costs. That’s just, that’s economics, right? We would have higher ownership rates. We would have more workforce housing if we just had more supply. We would have lower addiction rates. We would have fewer homeless Kentuckians, and we’d have increased household stability,” she said.

Smith said if there is more housing for higher income people and they can get what they want, people with fewer means will have more options open to them because it is a marketplace. Housing is also closely connected to economic development, she said.

“If you want jobs, you need homes,” Smith said.

Senate Majority Caucus Chair Julie Raque Adams, R-Louisville, said Detroit has added housing to the city by using sites that were conducive to construction.

“They looked at sites that were already ready to go. They already had the infrastructure there. They already had all of the sewer lines, everything, and they rebuilt those areas, part of the metropolitan area,” she said. “And everything that I’ve read, they’ve done it block by block by block, and they’ve really stabilized a huge portion of their metropolitan area.”

Senate Minority Whip David Yates, D-Louisville, asked Smith about possible KHC gap incentives for construction companies and developers to spur construction.

“I mean we can, but we don’t have any more to work with than we did before. Some of our resources could do that, and are doing that in some communities, but there’s not any more to go around. Who are we going to take from I guess is where we’re left,” Smith said.

Rep. Mike Clines, R-Alexandria, asked Smith if there’s a good housing program in another state that KHC favors more than others.

Smith said she would like more time to research the issue, but mentioned Oklahoma’s is interesting to her.

Committee Co-Chair Rep. Susan Witten, R-Louisville, said the task force was established after House Concurrent Resolution 68 was adopted during this year’s legislative session. The task force is charged with studying and reviewing current and future policy needs to address access and availability of housing for the state’s citizens.

Witten said this includes a demographic analysis of housing costs, population and employment opportunities statewide and regionally; a comprehensive review of state and local laws, regulations, policies and procedures that affect housing; analysis of the availability and accessibility of housing; and evaluation of land use, zoning, infrastructure and community planning to identify barriers to attainable and affordable housing.

The task force will also examine efforts in other areas of the United States to address housing shortages and boost home ownership, she said.

Phase 2 of the Housing Supply Gap Analysis will be a 5-year projection of future supply gaps in Kentucky, Smith said. This report is expected to be released Aug. 21 during the Kentucky Affordable Housing Conference in Louisville, she said.

The task force’s next meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 29 at 1 p.m.