Housing

• In the 2025 Listening Process, 500 people from across the city shared their concerns. Dozens, if not hundreds, shared concerns around housing cost, homelessness, frustration with out-of-town real estate investors, and more. After the listening process members overwhelmingly voted for the topic of housing to move forward for research and action. 

• The new Housing Committee is in the process of meeting with local organizations to better understand the root problem of housing and homelessness. 

• One of the biggest drivers of the housing challenges in Louisville is the shortage of housing units. This shortage impacts the cost of buying or renting homes, it can lower the quality of rental stock, and deeply impacts Louisville’s homeless crisis.

• Housing affordability is defined as your housing cost being 33% or less of your income. The average rent cost for a one-bedroom apartment in Louisville is around $1,200, which is out of the realm of affordability for many Louisvillians.

• For those in our community who make only 30% of the Area Media Income, their rental affordability rate is $495/month, which is incredible difficult to find. This means that many families are forced to live outside of their means and short change necessities like food, medicine, healthcare. Even then many still end up in some form of homelessness.

• In 2025 JCPS had around 4,000 students who met the federal definition of homeless. They believe this number is undercounted with some families going uncounted because of concerns around immigration, stigma, etc. 

• The Housing Committee will continue its research and narrow down to a specific solution for the 2026 Nehemiah Action.