COVINGTON, Ky. — A lack of affordable housing in northern Kentucky has made life difficult for people struggling to find a place to live.
Spectrum News 1 spoke to a single mother who has finally put a roof over her family’s head after months struggling with homelessness.
Danielle Cornett has food to give her two young daughters, Ruby and Viola. The two girls also each have a bed to sleep in. These things are easy for a lot of families to take for granted, but the Cornett family doesn’t. That’s because, for a long time, they were hard to come by.
“A little bit of discouragement whenever I was putting in applications for housing and stuff, and they’re, ‘no, no, no,’ and then finally you get a little bit of light, and it’s like a little bit of that push to keep on going. That’s all you need,” Cornett said.
She just moved into her new apartment in early March. Before that, she and her daughters had been living in the Welcome House shelter for about six months.
“It’s a lot of stress relief. It’s a lot of depression relief. It’s mainly just happiness because my kids can play and be kids now,” Cornett said. “A lot of the serenity practiced from sobriety has helped me calm myself.”
She’s taking advantage of the rapid rehousing program, funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and with the help of the Brighton Center, a nonprofit that helps families in northern Kentucky.
Cornett’s biggest hurdle was finding a place to live that she could afford. That made it hard to find a job, which only made it harder to find a place. It was an exhausting cycle that many people experience.
“There’s definitely not enough affordable housing. Even like your lower income areas that are run down, like a piece of crap apartment is gonna at least cost you $1,200. And that’s for something that is barely inhabitable,” she said. “Everybody’s living paycheck to paycheck.”
The Northern Kentucky Area Development District published a study, which estimates the region has a five-year housing production need of 6,650 units, or about 1,330 per year to support economic development.
Jennifer Wiley, Housing and Family Well-Being Director at the Brighton Center, said the housing shortage affects all other aspects of the community.
“You work with families that you’ve met when they’re at the lowest point of their life, they’re experiencing homelessness, they don’t have anywhere to go, they don’t know who to talk to,” Wiley said. “There’s a real need for any type of income aligned housing. And it’s really impacting all of our communities. Not just folks that are struggling financially, but people across all income brackets. The housing stock is not enough to meet the needs of the community.”
Besides rapid rehousing, Brighton Center offers a stable families homelessness prevention program, which helps families stay in their home.
One challenge, Wiley said, is showing landlords the benefits of programs like the one Cornett is using, and convincing them to take a chance.
It’s made all the difference in her life.
“That was my total saving grace, total saving grace, because I don’t have anybody to help me with my kids. It’s just me and them,” Cornett said. “Every little penny I earn, I have to budget somehow and stretch it as far as I can. It’s your goal every day to make them happy and smile. So every day, you can’t give up. You have to keep going.”
The next goal for her is to find a good job, so she can continue supporting her family when funding is no longer available.
The Brighton Center says home ownership is just as important for a healthy community. The center also has programs designed to help families toward that goal, including matching savings for a down payment up to a few thousand dollars.