Gov. Beshear signs $223 million check for rental home construction

FRANKFORT, Ky. (ABC 36 NEWSNOW) — Governor Andy Beshear signed a $223 million check which he says will help fund the construction of over 950 new rental units, particularly in areas that were hit hard by the tornadoes and floods.

“There was a gap and admittedly it was a gap that kept me up at night,” Gov. Beshear said.

This money will support 11 housing projects across Christian, Graves, Hopkins and Warren counties.

These housing projects will go toward helping low-income families find affordable housing. Wendy Smith with the Kentucky Housing Corporation says these four counties aren’t the only ones in need of more rental units.

“We discovered that over 200,000 units are needed across Kentucky. Every county needs units,” Smith said.

With inflation on the rise, as well as rental prices, the number of people unable to find affordable housing continues to go up. One way experts look at the state of housing is through vacancy rates. The average vacancy rate falls somewhere between 5% to 10%, but Kentucky sits below that.

“Our rental vacancy rate right now is about 3%, which indicates a market that is increasingly tightening which of course puts upward pressure on rents,” Andrew Bates with the Federation of Appalachian Housing Enterprises said.

In order to solve the shortage, both Smith and Bates say the state needs more construction.\

“We need more construction of single-family homes and multi-family apartments all over the state,” Smith said. “If you have more supply, costs will come down, and people will be able to find places to live.”

The funding announced includes $60 million in federal disaster recovery funds from the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery program (CDBG-DR). The federal program provides highly flexible funds for long-term recovery in communities affected by natural disasters.

“This announcement is welcome news for Western Kentucky. Communities devastated by the 2021 tornado outbreak will see $60 million in federal funding that I fought to secure go toward building hundreds of new housing units across the region. I’m glad to see my home state put these federal dollars to work and take this crucial next step in delivering real relief to Kentuckians,” Kentucky Senator Mitch McConell said.