Rent affordability in Covington and other river cities was the primary focus of comments at a public hearing in Covington on Tuesday night.
The hearing was related to two different federal funding programs designed to alleviate housing problems – the Community Development Block Grant program and HOME Investment Partnerships – during the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
Funding for both programs comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more commonly known as HUD.
“This hearing is part of our citizen participation process, which is a process outlined to engage the public in our planning efforts for our HUD grants,” said Covington Community Development Manager Jeremy Wallace at the beginning of the hearing.
Wallace gave an overview of the programs before members of the public spoke. Covington is an entitlement city, which means that it does not need to compete with other cities for federal HUD funding due to its population size. As a result, it receives a certain amount of federal money automatically each year.
The Community Development Block Grant program aims to address issues of economic development, infrastructure improvement, literacy education and other community issues.
The HOME Investment Partnerships Program works similarly but focuses more on increasing home ownership. The HOME program also includes a consortium of five other cities in the region: Bellevue, Dayton, Erlanger, Ludlow and Newport. Covington is only entitlement city in the program, so it’s responsible for managing the funds.
Neither program is related to COVID-19 emergency funding.
The city seeks public input on the two programs every year, and Wallace had already been fielding comments submitted through phone calls and emails. A draft of the plan for programs is available online, and the public comment period ends on May 7.
Anticipated 2023 CDBG Funds Anticipated 2023 HOME Funds $2,438,089 $2,607,760
The draft of the plan laid out how the city planned to spend the money, including which organizations served as advisors. Many of the groups named were well-known nonprofits in the region, such as The Brighton Center and The Welcome House. But the plan also named private and public institutions like Northern Kentucky Health Department, Housing Authority of Covington and Altafiber.
According to Wallace, the comments he’d received so far fell into a handful of recurring categories: affordable housing (especially rentals), house rehab and historical preservation, infrastructure improvements and improvements to parks and other green space.
Several members of the public spoke after Wallace concluded his presentation.
Two residents brought up issues of housing affordability.
Thurman Wenzl, who has also spoken at public meetings related to short-term rentals, said that the city, in spite of the two housing programs, had been an epicenter of high-end development over recent years. As a result, many of the parts of the city have developed a strange, contradictory quality in which high-end properties, like expensive condos and lofts, exist alongside run-down and, at times, abandoned properties.
“There’s a critical problem with old buildings owned by people with not very much money,” Wenzl said.
Rather than continuing to cater to high-end developers or relying on short-term rental investors, he proposed a program in which small, less wealthy landlords were incentivized to rehab their properties and keep rents low.
“We need a third option,” he said before adding that the city could issue low-interest loans so low-budget landlords rehab their properties “in return for keeping the rent down at $800 or something.”
The median rent price in the HOME consortium cities between 2017 and 2021 varied from about $765 per month to about $880 per month, according to the American Community Survey, a data collection initiative administered by the U.S. Census Bureau.
As result, Wenzl contended, many people working in low-paying service jobs couldn’t afford to live in the region, even if they were working full time; the rent was simply too high.
What’s more, the American Community Survey also indicated that anywhere from 40% to nearly 60% of renters in consortium cities were rent-burdened, meaning they spent more than 30% of their monthly income on rent. Data from Housing and Urban Development, which was cited in the draft plan, indicated that there were 6,400 property owners and 5,840 renters with housing cost burdens in Campbell and Kenton Counties.
Matthew Craig, who was recently legally evicted from his apartment, expressed similar concerns.
“I want to be in an inclusive city,” Craig said. “I was very fortunate that when my building was legally evicted, I could move next door to the new development. But most of my neighbors couldn’t, and most of my neighbors don’t reside in Covington anymore.”
He brought up the need for affordable housing generally.
“We’re not making this an inclusive city,” Craig said. “I truly believe that there are multiple opportunities that we can continue this development–this unprecedented development, which is good for Covington–while ensuring that we take care of the people that have been here forever.”
City Commissioner Ron Washington addressed the public comments toward the end of the hearing.
“I agree that our rental situation is out of hand,” Washington said. “I have people in my family that can’t find affordable housing in our city.”
Washington went on to say, “These are people that are keeping our city running… If there’s a way that we can have them live in our city comfortably, we should do that. So I am sensitive to that, and I haven’t forgotten where I come from.”
Anyone who wishes to offer comments about how the two programs should spend their money should contact Jeremy Wallace at (859)292-2147 or jwallace@covingtonky.gov. The city will accept comments until May 7.
The next Covington Commission meeting will occur on May 2 at 6 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street.