The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
Louisville, let’s fund affordable housing now
Metro Council seeking input on federal relief
Thanks to the American Rescue Plan (ARP) passed by Congress, Louisville now has $388 million in federal money to spend on our city’s greatest needs over the next three years.
Meanwhile, thousands of our neighbors have no choice but to sleep on the streets, in emergency shelters or in their cars.
Can you to envision our city — and the lives we would change — if we finally dedicated funding to address homelessness and housing insecurity for our poorest neighbors?
The federal government today spends less than 10% than it did in 1978 on affordable housing (adjusted for inflation). This disinvestment 40 years ago created today’s homelessness crisis, and with each passing year, the lack of funding compounds the existing problem.
The impact? There are thousands of Louisvillians who experience homelessness annually, and tens of thousands who do not have a stable, safe, affordable place to live. Due to decades of racist policies, these Louisvillians are disproportionately Black. According to the 2019 American Community Survey through the Census Bureau, more Black households in Louisville make less than $35,000 than over $50,000. And per the 2019 Housing Needs Assessment, Louisville needs more than 30,000 additional units of housing for people living in extreme poverty. Every day, there are Louisvillians who are searching for a place to rent, but cannot find a place they can afford — and the list of people who are on a waiting list to get help is even longer.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, all of this worsened. We might have all been stuck in the same storm, but we were not in the same boat. People who lived paycheck to paycheck were suddenly out of work — or had to choose between their incomes and their health. Thousands of people begged their landlords for another month to pay their rent, or the utility companies to not shut off their water and electricity. Parents had to choose between caring for their children during virtual school and keeping their jobs.
But now we finally have an opportunity to use federal ARP dollars to make a difference by addressing the root cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing for the poorest Louisvillians.
Metro Council has asked for input on how to spend this $388 million over the next three years. This is an unprecedented opportunity to change lives,
We finally have an opportunity to use federal ARP dollars to make a difference by addressing the root cause of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing for the poorest Louisvillians.
change neighborhoods and strengthen our economy for future crises through housing and supports. Please join us in telling Metro Council that it’s finally time to address homelessness and housing insecurity.
Our organizations are asking the city to commit $100 million over the next three years to affordable housing for extremely low-income Louisvillians (people making less than 30% AMI — about $20,000 for a family of three) and to fund a coordinated housing stabilization team that can help families navigate this system and avoid eviction in the future.
If you’ve ever seen someone camped out under an underpass and wondered what could be done, ask Metro Council to dedicate $100 million toward housing for our poorest neighbors and $20 million for a housing stabilization team.
If you’ve ever wished you could do something more for a person begging for money at an intersection, ask Metro Council to dedicate $100 million toward housing for our poorest neighbors and $20 million for a housing stabilization team.
If you’ve ever worried about people dying on the streets in extreme cold or heat — if you’ve ever wondered how a family can sleep in their car — if you’ve ever thought about LGBTQ+ kids who are forced out of their homes — ask Metro Council to dedicate $100 million toward housing for our poorest neighbors and $20 million for a housing stabilization team.
To submit a comment to your councilperson, go to louhomeless.org/ARP.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to address problems made worse by the coronavirus pandemic, following decades of underfunding in our poorest communities. We cannot afford to let it pass us by. It’s time to finally fund housing.