Bringing It Home with KHC Kentucky Housing Corporation

For the past two years, KHC and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness (WVCEH) have hosted an annual summit on preventing and ending rural homelessness. The Summit is a unique and collaborative training week for providers in the KY and WV Balance of State Continuums of Care, providing members with the opportunity to network among peers, ask questions of the experts, explore and refine leadership skills in the space of ending homelessness, and engage in meaningful, solution-driven conversations.
In this episode, we speak with Kenzie Strubank from KHC and Amanda Sisson from the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness about the Summit and their partnership and the impact of the summit. We also speak with two attendees about their experience at the event.

Recovery Kentucky was created to help Kentuckians recover from substance abuse, which often leads to chronic homelessness. There are 13 Recovery Kentucky centers across the Commonwealth. They are in Bowling Green, Campbellsville, Erlanger, Florence, Grayson, Harlan, Henderson, Hopkinsville, Owensboro, Paducah, Richmond, Somerset, and Knott County. These centers provide housing and recovery services for up to 2,000 Kentuckians across the state.
In this episode, we speak with Mike Townsend, who oversees the Recovery Kentucky program for Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC), and Stephanie McCarty, director of recovery services at the Women's Additions Recovery Manor (WARM) in Henderson, about the program's history, philosophy, and impact.

Each year, KHC and partners across the state conduct the K-Count, a census of persons experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires this count to demonstrate the need for resources for housing and services for homeless persons in each community.
In this episode, we spoke with Shaye Rabold, Continuum of Care (CoC) planning and technical administrator at KHC, and Beverly Isom, supportive services director at KCEOC, to better understand the K-Count and how and why it is carried out across the Commonwealth.

We began 2023 by discussing the state of affordable housing in Kentucky and the challenges for multifamily developers and loan officers. We later explored the need for fair housing and spoke with KHC staff and partners about how Kentuckians can achieve their dream of homeownership. In July, we offered a multipart look at how the Eastern Kentucky floods impacted the region and how residents and KHC partners are rebuilding. And we ended the year with a look at weatherization and homeless resources and the state of affordable housing in Kentucky's two largest cities. Before we embark on the 2024 season, we wanted to revisit some highlights from 2023. Here are excerpts from a few of those conversations.

In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Danielle Amrine, CEO of the Welcome House, and Melissa Hall Sommer, Senior Vice President of the Brighton Center, both of whom are deeply involved in addressing the issue of homelessness in Northern Kentucky. Our conversation aims to shed light on the prevalent issue of homelessness and explore the resources currently available to support those in need.
We are publishing this episode in November to recognize the significance of National Homelessness Awareness Month and National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. This time of year provides an opportunity for us to come together as a community and raise awareness about the challenges faced by individuals experiencing homelessness, especially the vulnerable youth population.

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The U.S. Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) is the nation's largest residential energy efficiency program, helping low-income families to lower their energy bills. KHC receives funding for WAP through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services' Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). That funding allows trained inspectors and crews from Community Action Agencies across the Commonwealth to retrofit housing for eligible individuals at no cost to the homeowner. Before doing the work, though, crew members are trained by experts at the KHC's Residential Energy Efficiency (REE) Center in Frankfort, Kentucky, where they learn on state-of-the-art equipment and training tools.
In this episode, we talk with those experts—REE Manager Mark Adams and REE Training Specialists Dewayne Cade and Troy Gosser—to learn more about weatherization, the REE Center, and the future of the program.