Louisville was one of eight cities recently selected to be a part of the Housing Solutions Collaborative led by ChangeLab Solutions, a national organization creating healthier communities through equitable laws and policies. As a member of the Housing Solutions Collaborative, Louisville will receive technical assistance and a shared foundation for collective problem solving to advance policy goals and build capacity to address the housing crisis.
The Louisville Community Team consists of four core members including the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, the Louisville Metro Government Office of Housing, the Center for Neighborhoods, and the Office of Councilmember Cassie Chambers Armstrong. A number of other nonprofit and local government partners will also participate in the collaborative.
“We are thrilled that Louisville was selected for this unique opportunity to learn from national experts and community leaders in cities across the country about how we can address the severe housing challenges that we are facing,” said Cathy Kuhn, the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Housing Solution.
Louisville faces myriad housing challenges, including affordability, availability, accessibility, poor quality, severe residential segregation, and high levels of eviction and displacement. Over 46% of renter households are cost-burdened, disproportionately affecting Black residents ― a legacy of Louisville’s long history of discrimination and residential segregation. To create comprehensive solutions to these issues, the Louisville team will work to strengthen tenant protections while enhancing community outreach and education. As a buffer against Louisville’s excessively high eviction rates, the team will seek to direct affordable housing opportunities to those most in need.
“I’m honored and energized to collaborate with our coalition partners and other cities across America that are all working to address the housing inequities in our communities,” said Metro Councilmember Chambers Armstrong. “I look forward to bringing new, innovative strategies that keep our most vulnerable neighbors housed to my colleagues on Metro Council for legislation and implementation.”
Seven other teams have been selected to join the Housing Solutions Collaborative from Buffalo, New York; Chesterfield County, Virginia; Madison, Wisconsin; Oakland County, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; Orange County, North Carolina; and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Each team is facing conditions that impede housing equity including segregation, aging housing stock, growing gaps between incomes and rents, and restrictive laws and policies that severely limit the actions that local governments can take to address social and racial inequities in housing.
For more information about the Housing Solutions Collaborative, go to: https://www.changelabsolutions.org/news/introducing-housing-solutions-collaborative.
