Curb appeal probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the phrase affordable housing.
Maggie Whitfield’s plum-painted brick shotgun, though, could grace the cover of any home magazine. White molding frames the front door and window, and the postage-sized front yard is surrounded by a charming wrought iron fence.
The 34-year-old elementary school teacher calls the house near Monmouth Street in Newport her “blessing.”
“I still feel so proud and happy every time I walk into my house,” Whitfield said. “It’s a really special feeling to have something that is your own.”
Whitfield purchased the three-bedroom, two-bathroom property through a program run by Neighborhood Foundations, one of many nonprofit agencies helping people in Northern Kentucky find housing they otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford.
The need is considerable. There is such a shortage of income-aligned housing in the region, several advocates call it a crisis. Even those who hesitate over the word acknowledge there is a problem.
“I think it feels like a crisis to people who can’t find a place that works for them to live,” said Tara Johnson-Noem, executive director of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District. That organization conducted a study that found a severe shortage of housing units available for people with incomes at or below 80% of the median.
Workforce job creation is outpacing workforce housing in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties. “In the next 5 years, there will be a need for 1,860 additional one- and two-bedroom units for low- and moderate-income [households] (monthly housing costs $500-$1,500) and about 500 units for very low-income households (monthly housing costs below $320),” the study says.
Northern Kentucky leaders and residents alike are working together to find innovative ways to address the region’s housing shortage.
If about 6,600 new housing units aren’t added to what’s currently available in Northern Kentucky within the next five years, a recent study found that the region will start losing people – and fast.
Every other month, LINK nky sends out a newspaper to all 173,000 Northern Kentucky households. We call these Super Issues. Each of these editions takes a deep dive into a topic that affects our community and the solutions that have made our region better.
This month, we’re talking about housing and how our region is addressing that sobering outlook.
We’re exploring creative ways zoning could allow for the creation of more housing; whether adapting and reusing old buildings could make a dent in the problem; we explore the many ways people can get assistance around the region; and more.
You should be getting your Super Issue in the coming days. We encourage you to sit down and take your time with it. The topics we tackle are heavy and hard to fully take in while scrolling online.
But, seeing as how you’re reading this online (and because we want you to share these stories of resolve and positive problem solving far and wide), we also wanted you to have links to each of the stories.
Click here to read my introduction to the series, exploring how even a mindset can be part of making change. From there, you can read the other stories in this super issue, or find links to them below:
Thank you for reading, and please, if you have feedback, ideas, or want to find ways to connect to your community, reach out to me at mgoth@linknky.com.
-Meghan Goth, executive editor
What is a Super Issue? A note from the editor
A companion report by the development district and Brighton Center/Brighton Properties notes housing isn’t keeping up with an increase in job opportunities in Northern Kentucky. The “Home for All” report specifically mentions “eds and meds” workers such as teachers and home health care personnel. “These jobs are increasingly central to urban locations,” it says.
Another troubled sector is “low wage new economy jobs,” such as retail and hospitality. They account for more than 24% of positions in Northern Kentucky, a “ratio higher than … average.”
The development district study lays out a menu of strategies to address the imbalance, including homeownership assistance programs. One of those, run by Neighborhood Foundations in Newport, is what helped Whitfield buy a house of her own.
She was having difficulty finding anything in her price range that wasn’t “falling apart.”
“I was, like, ‘I could buy this, but then I don’t have any income to fix it up,’” Whitfield said.
Then Whitfield saw a brochure for Neighborhood Foundations at her school. She met all of the qualifications, which included having a below-average income and being a Newport resident.
The wait for a house can be as long as a year, but Whitfield was on the waiting list for only four months when the organization called with something to show her. “The moment I walked in, without even going through the house, I was, like, ‘Sold,’” Whitfield said.
In conjunction with each of our super issues, we hold a Community Conversation event to bring the community together to talk about solutions and provide resources.
Our event about the region’s housing shortage is scheduled for June 12 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County Public Library.
Click here to learn more about the speakers and to register for the free event. We hope to see you there!
Want to join the conversation?
The home is one of many fixer-uppers that Neighborhood Foundations has purchased. The renovation includes hardwood floors and stainless steel appliances.
“The amenities we put in are not the bottom of the barrel,” said Tracie Joyner, Neighborhood Foundation’s deputy director. She said affordable housing was once the “lowest of the lows,” but the organization is trying to make its homes “look like any other place that you would rent” or buy on the market.
“Everything that we have, pretty much, are single family houses and duplexes that are scattered throughout the city,” Joyner said. “So you don’t know, unless someone wants you to know, that it’s assisted housing.”
Rental options, too
In addition to ownership assistance, the organization helps place people in rentals. One property, co-managed with the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission, is reserved for single parents seeking a college degree.
Michaela Bettis lives in a three-bedroom apartment in the Lincoln Grant Scholar House, a former school built in the 1930s to serve Covington’s African-American community. Prior to moving in, Bettis lived in public housing in Cincinnati’s Lincoln Heights.
“I didn’t want my children to grow up with that sort of lifestyle, or to befriend somebody that was just a little bit more prone to get into trouble,” she said.
Bettis’ apartment is filled with color. A multihued blanket drapes over the back of a green couch, highlighted by yellow pillows. A Gustav Klimt print leans against one wall, and other works of art dot the kitchen, office area and bedrooms. These are the creations of her children: Jamia, 8, Juwan, 6, and Julian, 5.
While her children draw and paint, Bettis studies. She is enrolled at Gateway Community & Technical College and is ready to start at Northern Kentucky University in the fall of 2026, aiming for a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and a minor in psychology. She wants to be a lawyer.
“I want to do the prosecutor side,” Bettis said. “I feel like I could potentially help more people on that side. I would prefer to focus on the family part and juvenile parts.”
Bettis likes rules. Particularly the rules she and other tenants must abide by at the scholar house.
“We’re not supposed to have overnight guests; no partners are to stay here or other family members,” she said. “They can be a distraction and possibly put you off track.”
Other local organizations that help people find rentals they can afford include Housing Opportunities of Northern Kentucky, Brighton Center and the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission.
The Community Action Commission helped 55-year-old Air Force veteran Cyrus Hensley find a place to call his own. He was on a waiting list for eight months. In the meantime, he stayed at Welcome Home Gardens, a shelter for unhoused veterans.
“It’s close quarters,” he said. “There’s very little privacy.”
Still, living at the shelter had its benefits, including an introduction to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing program.
Hensley, who sustained a serious injury while lifting an airplane engine and is now disabled, hasn’t lived on his own since 1997. He just moved into a studio apartment on Eastern Avenue in Covington and set up his easel. He likes to paint acrylics of “out there kinds of things,” such as his own versions of tarot cards.
He said he’s excited to have “no one else there but me.”
Hensley credits the action commission with keeping him working at various jobs around the area. Without assistance, though, he would not be able to afford even the studio apartment.
Need at all levels
Rhonda Chisenhall, the NKCAC’s vice president of community development, isn’t a fan of the phrase “affordable housing.” She prefers “income-aligned housing.”
“When people hear the term affordable housing, they think of low-income housing, and that’s not necessarily what we’re talking about, because there’s families at all levels of income that need housing, and there’s a housing shortage,” Chisenhall said.
The “Home for All” report’s menu of strategies includes suggestions for planning and zoning that would “address the rise in demand for missing middle housing units by exploring ways to reduce development costs and barriers.”
That will be challenging as construction costs skyrocket. Real estate broker Jim Schack said construction costs that once averaged $100 per square foot have doubled. “You’re looking at the baseline to build at around $200 per square feet, and, depending on your options and how you want it, maybe $250 per square foot to buy a new construction house,” he said.
That’s pushing up the cost of existing housing as well.
“Just earlier this week,” Schack said, “I listed a house out in Alexandria. Now, it’s a nice brick ranch on a one-acre lot. It’s a nice house, and it’s listed at $375,000, and it would have been, not too long ago, that house would have been listed at $275,000.”
Tom Guidugli, director of Neighborhood Foundations, said many of the assisted housing programs available in Northern Kentucky are centered in Newport and Covington, which attract those in need from across the region. “We’re overloaded,” he said.
The organization’s Section 8 vouchers range from Bellevue to Fort Thomas, and there are project-based vouchers in Highland Heights, but 95% of the housing it offers is in Newport.
Professionals feel the pinch
NKCAC operates several income-aligned communities in Florence, Crittenden and Covington. “So that’s providing housing for families with moderate income levels, and their rent is based on their income,” Chisenhall said.
Northern Kentucky is not on track to have enough housing stock to meet the needs of the population, she said. “There’s lots of developments, new housing, but it tends to be more upper level, expensive housing, as opposed to that which the majority of families can afford.”
The average home costs more than what police officers, firemen, teachers and the like can afford, Chisenhall said. “They have professional jobs, but there is still a lack of housing that is truly affordable to them.”
That means some people are falling through the cracks.
“There’s a lot of people that, you know, are what we call couch surfing,” Chisenhall said. “So, they’re staying with friends or family until they get housing.”
At the end of the day, she said, everybody wants the same thing for their family: to have a roof over their head and to be able to provide for their children in a safe environment.
“When you don’t have that, then that puts the rest of your life in turmoil,” Chisenhall said. “You’re stressed about that and that’s going to impact every aspect of your life. Having a nice, safe home for your family helps alleviate that stress so you can focus on other things.”
The Area Development District’s study was designed to address the housing shortage and identify where the gaps are in the existing housing stock. “About 50% of the employers that we polled responded that they felt like housing was holding them back from attracting and retaining workers,” Johnson-Noem said.
The study also found household size is shrinking and that a growing number of seniors are looking to move into smaller, single-level homes. “We have a strong need for one- and two-bedroom units at a variety of price points,” Johnson-Noem said.
Farther away is cheaper
Both she and Schack recommend that people looking for income-aligned housing expand their geographical search. “If you can’t find something in this particular area, we have so many beautiful communities around Kentucky and homes across the river as well,” Johnson-Noem said.
One tip Schack had: The further you get from the city, the more you get for your money.
“If you go out to Pendleton County, Bracken County, Grant County, if you’re willing to drive a bit, you can get a little more for your money and you’re less likely to be in a bidding war,” he said.
Of course, for many people who need housing assistance, transportation is an issue. Hensley doesn’t have a car and usually walks or takes a bus. Bettis and Whitfield do have their own transportation but prefer living in a more urban area that allows them to walk to school and work. Both live within blocks of their jobs.
“I save a lot of money on gas because I walk to school now,” Whitfield said. “When I get done with school, I’m home in five minutes. That’s awesome.”
Whitfield has advised several of her colleagues to look into assisted housing programs and to do what they can to save for a down payment. In return for help with her own down payment, Whitfield agreed to stay in her home for 10 years.
Whitfield said she really doesn’t care about any perceived stigma about living in affordable housing. “I just want to encourage people not to be embarrassed or not to feel a certain way about accessing these programs,” she said, “because that’s why these programs were created.”
Whitfield said that, without Neighborhood Foundations, she’d probably still be in her old, “buggy” apartment, just making do.
“I was just doing what I could,” she said, “but this afforded me what’s been a great investment. I just think there should be no stigma, no embarrassment.”