Community to Dedicate Home for Homeless Family

Thanks to a public-private partnership, Lexington will soon open a house dedicated to serving the needs of a family that is homeless.

“One of the gaps in the assistance we have been able to offer people who are homeless has been in keeping families together,” Mayor Jim Gray said. “With this house we are taking another step to close that gap.” The house will be used to provide permanent housing to a family that is homeless.

The partners in the rehabilitation will host a dedication of the house, located at 325 Wilgus Ave. (located in the East End of downtown, off Third Street), at 10 a.m., Monday, May 9. Partners include the city, the Lexington Housing Authority, the Home Builders Association of Lexington and the Community Action Council of Lexington. 

Austin Simms, Executive Director of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority, said the partners have taken a dilapidated, uninhabitable house and transformed it into an attractive home, removing a blight from the neighborhood while providing an opportunity for a family that is homeless to live together. Funding for the $90,000 project was providing by the city’s Office of Affordable Housing, and ongoing support for the family is provided by Community Action through a grant from the city’s Office of Homelessness. The Home Builders managed the rehabilitation work. “It was another opportunity to give back to the community,” said Todd Johnson, Executive Vice President of the Home Builders Association. Students in the association’s Building Institute of Central Kentucky worked on the project. “They got some valuable hands-on experience,” Johnson said.

Scheduled to attend the dedication:

• Vice Mayor Steve Kay
• Todd Johnson, Executive Vice President of the Home Builders Association
• Sally Hamilton, LFUCG - Chief Administrative Office
• Charlie Lanter, Director - LFUCG Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention
• Rick McQuady, Director - LFUCG Office of Affordable Housing
• Austin Simms, Executive Director of the Lexington Housing Authority
• Christopher Taylor and Michael Browder,U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
• Malcolm Ratchford, Community Action Council