LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Louisville Metro Council’s Planning and Zoning Committee passed an Anti-Displacement Assessment Tool. The tool assesses whether a potential developer’s project, who wants to use government resources, could displace residents in the area. The full council is expected to put it to a vote on Thursday.

Jessica Bellamy is once again living in her childhood home in Smoketown. Bellamy’s grandmother bought the house in the 1980s. Multiple family members ended up living in the home.

“It was me, my brother, my mother, my grandmother, and then three of my aunts,” Bellamy said.

Bellamy’s grandmother gave her the house in 2018. The house had been sitting vacant for a while.

“By the time it was 2019, 2020, I was talking to contractors trying to get a bid to renovate the house,” Bellamy said.

The cost of those renovations was about $300,000. Bellamy says that construction costs were so high because of the effects of gentrification. So, once again, the house sat vacant. A family friend recommended Bellamy move back into the home and renovate it room by room.

“I finally took her advice because trying to remain afloat in this housing market has been crazy,” Bellamy said.

Thanks to the help of her uncle and others with renovations, she has returned to her childhood home, but Smoketown has changed.

“Even my block, the only house that remains that has family that’s still connected from when I was a kid, is just one. There’s only one house,” Bellamy said.

Seeing the impact of gentrification in her neighborhood and beyond led Bellamy to start the Louisville Tenants Union and lead the Anti-Displacement Ordinance campaign in Louisville.

“We had to get proactive,” Bellamy said. “We had to write legislation ourselves.”

Louisville Metro passed an Anti-Displacement Ordinance last year. Developing an assessment tool to enforce the ordinance was the next step.

“The tool measures the impact of residential displacement on proposed developments in the city of Louisville if they want to use government subsidies,” said Councilman Jecorey Arthur, I-District 4. He sponsored the ordinance.

The city worked with researchers from a few universities across the country to develop the tool. The Council’s Planning and Zoning Committee passed it on Tuesday, Nov. 12 to advance it to the full council.

“I’m feeling very optimistic with Thursday’s (Nov. 21) vote,” Bellamy said.

Should the council pass the resolution, Louisville will be the first city in the country to pass an Anti-Displacement Assessment Tool like this.

The fight for affordable housing will continue for Bellamy. She plans to launch a new organization called PUSH Louisville. PUSH stands for People United for Social Housing.