Housing
Kentucky could win ‘massive’ solar investment in federal competition. Here’s what’s possible.
An unlikely collaboration between a Kentucky coalfield county and Kentucky’s largest city began when a former high school English teacher, Megan Downey, walked into the Lawrence County courthouse in Louisa in August.?? Inspired by a personal desire to find ways to tackle the impacts of climate change, Downey had launched a nonprofit called The Solar […]
Rosalynn Carter acclaimed by admirers for her pioneering advocacy for mental health, caregiving
Former first lady Rosalynn Carter has died, according to the Carter Center, leaving a rich legacy of championing mental health and women’s rights. She will be buried at the ranch house in Plains she and former President Jimmy Carter built in 1961. She died Sunday just days after the family announced she had entered hospice […]
For one Kentucky city, a new home highlights the housing challenges rural communities face
Along the Tennessee border in West Kentucky, Fulton County Judge-Executive Jim Martin traced his rural community’s economic challenges, and its coinciding lack of housing, back decades.? As the federal government built interstates throughout the country and in Kentucky in the mid-20th century, less traffic subsequently came through the county as new routes were planned. Garment […]
Report: Flood insurance cost a barrier to Eastern Kentucky recovery
The cost of flood insurance is a large recovery barrier for people living in Eastern Kentucky flood plains, says a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Researcher Matt Klesta reported what locals have said: Flood insurance is too expensive for most residents. Also, floods have made affordable housing problems worse and driven locals […]
Group organizes around rental housing issues in northeast Kentucky
When community organizers started knocking on doors in Boyd County, they were ready to listen to what people had to say about the biggest issues in their lives. What surprised the canvassers was how ready residents were to talk. “It was just house after house after house of people talking to me for 20 or […]
Few in Eastern Kentucky could afford flood insurance. Now it costs even more.
Few in Eastern Kentucky have flood insurance or have ever been able to afford it. A federal agency’s new pricing system is putting it even further out of reach, jeopardizing eligibility for federal aid after future floods.? The cost of flood insurance is a major reason that Terry Thies is trying to sell her family […]
Couch, car or curb: Defining ‘homeless’ youth affects aid state by state
The spectrum of youth homelessness is vast. It includes young children sleeping with their mothers in crowded shelters and families living in tent encampments in public parks. There are teenage runaways who have fled abusive homes to live on the streets and kids who spend their nights hidden in cars or abandoned buildings. But youth […]
Some ‘in limbo’ more than a year after deadly floods hit Eastern Kentucky
More than a year after four feet of water flooded her house, Nancy Herald still doesn’t know when – or if – she’ll return to the home that’s been in her family for nearly five decades.? Driving past the homeplace, even, is too painful. Sometimes she goes inside; sometimes she just passes quietly. And sometimes, […]
Fourth ‘higher-ground’ homesite for Eastern Kentucky flood victims will be in Knott County
Another residential community to house survivors of last summer’s Eastern Kentucky floods will be in Knott County, along Chestnut Ridge Drive, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Friday.? The news, along with the Thursday announcement of a Floyd County site, come on the heels of the one-year anniversary of devastating floods that killed 45 people. Flooding began […]
After flood anniversary, Beshear says $2 million will secure Floyd County rebuilding site
The day after the one-year anniversary of devastating floods in Eastern Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear announced plans to provide 34 single-family homes to house flood survivors. Beshear said Thursday that $2 million in Community Development Block Grant funds will be given to the county to acquire two vacant lots — a total of 34 acres […]
Donated site in Letcher County to house survivors of Eastern Kentucky floods
Local, state and federal groups are working together to secure housing for flood survivors in Letcher County.? The fiscal court of the Eastern Kentucky county previously voted to transfer about four acres of property to develop a small housing site near Whitesburg. The land has space for 10 housing units.? According to a recent news […]
Small housing site planned near Whitesburg could be first new one fully occupied by flood victims
Letcher County has given the state a 3.5-acre tract near Whitesburg to be used for a small housing development for victims of the July 2022 flood. It seems likely to be the first fully occupied such development. The site, known as the Marlowe property, is on Sandlick Creek, less than a mile outside the Whitesburg […]