LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Raymone Neal, 47, knows exactly what it's like to be homeless and sleep on the streets. Beginning in 2017, he spent a handful of years living without a roof on his head. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Arthur Street Hotel offers housing for Louisville's homeless population

  • Roughly 400 to 500 people have come through the hotel, said Lisa Dischinger, LDG Development co-owner and LDG Foundation board chair

  • The hotel offers resources such as an on-site doctor, food and mental health professionals

“It’s life-altering; it’s life-changing," Neal said. "It’s psychological warfare within one’s own self to be able to find any kind of peace or rest with horns honking, sirens wailing, the firing of weapons or the loud banging of construction or people arguing … dismay all around you and you don’t have nothing to shelter you from that.”

Around Thanksgiving, he got a housing voucher to move in to Louisville's Arthur Street Hotel. He said it was an adjustment at first because he was so used to sleeping on the streets. 

“Like an astronaut, I had to be debriefed physically, mentally and psychologically before my psychological tribulation allowed me to actually understand that, ‘Hey, you’re not in the streets no more.'” Neal said.

Neal is one of hundreds who have been moved off the streets into permanent housing by the Arthur Street Hotel since it opened around Oct. 2022. The hotel provides temporary housing for Louisville's homeless population. 

“We’ve moved about 200 people into permanent housing from the streets, and we’ve probably had 400, 500 people come through here," said Lisa Dischinger, said LDG Development co-owner and LDG Foundation board chair. "Most will go into housing or into, I call it, a better situation."

The hotel offers a host of help for guests, such as an on-site doctor, food, mental health professionals and outreach peer support. 

“The main goal, obviously, is housing, but it’s connecting people to resources, giving them community, giving them respect and dignity because at the Arthur Street Hotel, we believe that Housing is a human right," said Tiny Herron, Arthur Street Hotel's director of housing services.

Dischinger said the hotel had a cost of $4 million, adding operating costs run about $300,000 a month. She said it appreciates the community's help.

“Money is the big thing, but even donating furniture or delivery services or food or whatever anybody has is much appreciated because when people come in or when people are on the streets, they have nothing and we’re supplying everything," Dischinger said. 

Neal said Arthur Street changed his life for the better. 

“It gave me a sanctuary to be able to rest and think differently," he said. 

The hotel accepts donations online. 

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