‘We need to get people out of tents.’ But EKY relief plan leaves confounding housing gap.
It would be good to have a comprehensive plan for exactly where and how Eastern Kentucky will build and rebuild to best meet the future weather challenges of climate change.
It would have been good to have it before devastating floods destroyed numerous communities there on July 28, and it will be good to have it in January, when the General Assembly meets in regular session to pass new laws.
But Angela Cornett really doesn’t have time to wait. She’s one of many people living in a tent outside her flooded house near Troublesome Creek. She wants to repair her home, but thinks she will have to leave to find permanent housing before she’ll get the help she needs.
“There’ll be a lot of people who have to move out of here,” she told reporter Bill Estep who wrote about numerous people living in tents, sheds and cars in the blistering August heat.
So it’s confusing at best and confounding at worst that the General Assembly derailed State Sen. Brandon Smith’s attempts to add $50 million dedicated to housing when they passed a $213 million aid package on Friday. The money is split between the Division of Emergency Management, schools and the Department of Transportation.
In explanation, there were vague mumbles of “needs assessments,” and “plans” and “emergencies.”
So let’s talk about what we do know. Even before all these natural disasters, we know that Kentucky has an unmet need of 79,000 units of affordable housing, much of it in rural areas. We knew that Eastern Kentucky has long been prone to floods, and somehow the state has never crafted any kind of sustainability plan, even as the floods worsened in recent years.
According to the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, we know that 1,749 homes — housing 5,285 adults and children — were totally destroyed. About 4,057 homes — affecting 12,065 — were partially destroyed.
We also know that if the best time to build affordable housing was ten years ago, the second best time is today. As Smith pointed out: “I feel compelled to do this because if we don’t, we’ll have the largest out-migration in the history of Appalachia. People want to have housing.”
The bill that passed Friday does include $75 million for emergency activity, some of which can go to housing, but is also allocated for many other emergency needs.
But as Jason Bailey of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy said: “The point of the need for additional housing money is primarily about permanent housing. That needs to start now because it will take time to identify and acquire viable land on which to build safe housing, for example. Waiting will mean more people leave or will raise the question of when they will ever get permanent housing.”
Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Housing and Homeless Coalition of Kentucky, said leaders need to discuss and plan the future of where and what we build in Eastern Kentucky, given that all we thought we knew about flood plains has floated away.
“Those are hard conversations and they need to be had, but we don’t need to start with the hardest thing first — we need to get people out of tents,” she said.
It’s not as though there are not existing organizations that could put the money to use right away. We have the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which is split between funding multifamily development and emergency home repair to low-income Kentuckians. On the ground in Eastern Kentucky, we have organizations like the Housing Development Alliance or Partnership Housing, which would be happy to work on new housing with more money.
“The message I am hearing from leaders and dealmakers in the legislative and executive branch is that housing is too hard and so we’re not going to touch until January,” Bush said. “To just say we’re not going to address it at all because it’s too hard, that’s just unacceptable.”
Scott McReynolds, executive director of the Housing Development Alliance, said a long-term plan for building outside the flood plain is a necessity, but waiting on it without funding until the General Assembly gets going next spring is too long.
“That leaves us in limbo unable to plan,” he said. “If they would make a commitment and tell us what’s coming, we can start planning because housing doesn’t happen fast.”
Leaders also said they wanted to see what FEMA was going to pay for before state funds were used. But we’re all seeing the glacial pace that the federal agency works at and let me repeat, people are living in tents right now.
What’s so strange is that leaders could have allocated the money, which would begin the process before winter kicks in, and then made changes and better long-time plans in January. It would also be a psychological boost to Eastern Kentuckians, who would know that tangible help is on the way.
They can improve in January. But now would be better. As Smith said on Facebook: “What we don’t understand is why we would take an existing housing crisis, watch thousands of those precious existing houses wash down river or fill up with flood water (with all of your humanly possessions if not human life!), and decide now is the time to do EVEN less.”
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 2:11 PM.
