New vouchers will help Lexington house every child in city’s homeless system
Lexington has been awarded 76 new housing vouchers to help families who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness, city and housing officials announced Thursday.
The emergency vouchers, which are being federally funded through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will prioritize families with children experiencing homelessness or are at risk of being homeless. After that, those fleeing domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault or stalking will be prioritized.
Mayor Linda Gorton, Housing Authority Executive Director Austin Simms and Polly Ruddick, director of Lexington’s Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention, jointly announced the program.
“I never thought I’d see the day where I could stand in front of you and say that I can house every single child that we have in our homeless system right now, and today I can do that,” Ruddick said. “And that’s a pretty awesome feeling, and we’ve worked really, really hard to get that done.”
Each voucher will provide housing for a family for up to ten years, which gives the families a chance to stabilize and become self-sustainable, officials said. If for some reason, a family is unable to become self-sustaining in that amount of time, the city will be able to use the time to help figure out another program to continue helping them.
The voucher program is just a step in the ongoing work to end homelessness in Lexington, Gorton said. In 2019, another program was put in place to get homeless veterans into housing. The hope is to continue putting systems in place for other categories of people without housing.
The Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention and the Housing Authority are working to quickly distribute the vouchers to get families in stable housing as soon as possible. Under the current program, the vouchers cannot be issued or reissued after 2023, Ruddick said. Up to 2023, a voucher can be reissued if an awarded family can become self-sustaining before their voucher runs out, she said.
The voucher program also includes incentives for landlords to participate, Simms said. Landlords willing to house voucher recipients can get up to a $500 lease incentive fee, as well as rent payments of up to 120 percent of the market value rent and a two-month security deposit, he said.
“For those that have an economic mind versus the social services mind, this is a good deal ... then we bring in the social services people to support,” Simms said.
Simms’ office made it clear to HUD that if there are extra vouchers unused in other parts of the country, Lexington will accept them. There is hope that the program can grow in Lexington over the next few years, he said.
Recipients will be identified through the Lexington-Fayette County Continuum of Care Coordinated Entry list.
Lexington has not seen an increase in those reporting homelessness during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that’s believed to be due at least in part to eviction moratoriums and other aid in place during the pandemic. The city is working to help keep people from becoming homeless because of COVID-19 as eviction moratoriums end, Gorton said. Gorton said during Thursday’s announcement that she asked Gov. Andy Beshear last week for more funding to help with rental assistance.
This story was originally published May 27, 2021 at 3:39 PM.
