Housing affordability has been a hot topic this past year. Unfortunately, it will continue to be for the foreseeable future. A recent commentary found in the Northern Kentucky Tribune helps describe the current and pending situation in the state: “It is important to note that our state has a severe shortage of affordable housing – nearly 1 in every 4 Kentuckians is severely rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than half of their income on rent. That is because we are not building nearly enough homes, which drives up costs for everyone and may even push would-be lifelong Kentuckians into neighboring states where they can actually afford to live.” This article goes on to reference the two new battery plants in Kentucky – one to be built by Ford Motor Company in Glendale, near Elizabethtown, and Envision, located here in Bowling Green.
Two of the key issues in the complex affordable housing equation are income limits and funding caps. The commentary further describes how the opportunity exists to increase both funding and funding limits, which in turn will help create a broader array of housing stock for people in this rent-burdened category. Without some change to programs that provide needed assistance to house our new citizens, this issue will continue to persist and become a bigger portion of our population. As home prices continue to rise due to this increasing demand from the in-migration of new workforce, more housing is needed in order to keep up. We also need more homebuilders. Locally we are predicting that around 2,000 to 3,000 housing units (single family & apartments) are needed every year to keep up with our current and coming demand. We estimate that our community only has the construction capacity to build around 1,500 housing units per year, which leave our demand greater than our supply.
It is important to keep the perspective that it is better to live in a growing community rather than one that is not. In Warren County we will continue to struggle with how to build more housing, where to build housing, what form/style the housing will come in, and trying to balance the environmental impacts, transportation, loss of farmland and other issues. Our county will be adding the equivalent of another city of Bowling Green by 2050. The fact is that the growth is coming. We must work together on all levels to figure out a proper balance to make our great community even better.