A purchase agreement of Covington city-owned land for a senior, affordable housing development got a stamp of approval from the Covington Board of Commissioners Tuesday night.
The senior development involves a cluster of vacant land in the Lewisburg neighborhood on Western Avenue. The developer is Spire Development out of Columbus, which has already developed both affordable and senior housing in Northern Kentucky, such as the Three Springs Townhomes in Crescent Springs.
The development plan Spire submitted to the city, which you can read here, calls for 30 one-bedroom units and 20 two-bedroom units. If Spire is able to get tax credits, it will pay $5,000 to the city to buy the parcels. Spire plans to spend about $13.67 million to develop the land, $10 million of which will be bankrolled by the tax credits. The units will be marketed to people making 80% or less of the area media income.
Our region, according to a housing strategies report released in 2025, lacks sufficient housing for young adults forming their first household; for essential workers like nurses, teachers and first responders; and for older adults. A teacher with a median annual income of $43,740, for example, can afford only 26% of the rental and 16% of the for-sale housing in the region, according to the report. For a restaurant server, only 1% of the region’s rental housing is affordable.
An older person relying on Social Security can also afford only 1% of rental housing in the region, according to the report.
The report, called Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies, came to be thanks to more than 90 leaders and experts from across NKY who spent hours studying the region and its urgent housing challenge. Their goal was to close the housing gap across income levels and provide a place for everyone.
Click here to learn more about the shortage and how NKY leaders and community members are stepping in to find solutions.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
In spite of the vote, the approval of the agreement doesn’t guarantee the development will occur. The development won’t go through if the developers are unable to obtain low-income housing tax credits to aid in bankrolling the development.
