Lexington city leaders get results of a housing affordability study
Originally published by WEKU.
Lexington city leaders continue to wrestle with a nationwide issue, how to house a community. Urban County Council members got an affordable housing needs analysis on Tuesday.
The study revealed the gap for housing in Lexington across all incomes is well over 22 thousand units, houses, and apartments. Surging rent and high mortgages along with high labor and construction materials costs are affordability factors. EHI Consultants’ Ed Holmes told the Council it may sometimes come down to smaller houses close together.
“Increased density, you’re gonna see lot sizes much smaller, 5000 square foot lots. So, we’ve got to educate the public in smaller is better and much more affordable,” said Holmes.
The City’s Affordable Housing Fund has invested more than $47 million, resulting in 35 hundred new and preserved units. According to the report, median rent went up 47% from 2019 to 2024.
Helping compile the demographic information was Adam Klier with EHI Consultants. Klier said affordability is complicated by socially-expected features in a house today.
“The services we provide in our home that were once provided by our community. Talk about walkability. The necessity of a garage in an automobile-dependent community. It’s a very complicated issue and what an affordable home should look like is definitely something that the community should be talking about,” said Klier.
In addition to money set aside in the City’s Affordable Housing Fund to help with the construction and rehab of houses, EHI Consultants President Ed Holmes said there are other steps to consider. Holmes said that includes community block grants, section 8 assistance, tax credits, and non-profits like Habitat. Lexington Council Member Whitey Baxter says there are different issues related to affordability. But, it’s difficult when housing is expensive to build and then too expensive for potential buyers to purchase.
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Originally published by WEKU.
Republished with permission.
