Three years ago, Shilo Berry of Bowling Green began her journey to sobriety in an effort to prioritize the health and safety of her two children, Kai’Ari and Jai’Ari. She remembered it being a difficult journey, made even more challenging under the threat of domestic violence and housing insecurity.
“You know, I lost custody of them at one point, and that will never happen again. That is a promise I’ve made to them. I missed a whole year of him being a baby. I lost him when he was like 6 months old, and got him back a few months before he turned two. So that was really traumatic for me,” Berry said.
After two years in a sober living home shared by around ten other participants, Berry began the search for a reliable and affordable home for her and the kids. She said she wasn’t prepared for the reality of the housing market, and the lack of safe options for her family.
“I was really worried, like how… I mean I work at Walmart. I make 14-something an hour, like how am I going to afford to make the rent? $1,200 for a two-bedroom, that’s crazy here in Bowling Green,” she said.
Berry and her family’s situation is not an unusual one. The lack of affordable housing has evolved into a national crisis, with more than 6.8 million affordable housing units needed across the country, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Kentucky alone is short by more than 96,000 affordable housing units.
According to a study conducted by a national research firm, Bowling Green needs roughly 14,000 affordable housing units to keep up with its accelerated growth. To meet that need, the city, state, and advocacy groups are investing more than $130 million in affordable homes and rental units.
Until those units are built, Berry said safe, affordable housing is difficult to come by, especially with barriers in place to even visit a site, like predatory application and service fees.
“The amount of money they want for some of these places is astronomical,” she said. “And then I feel like, with these application fees? People want…you want me to pay you $50, and then there’s like a $100 administration fee. For what? You’re already at work, isn't that your job?”
While on the search for a home, Berry discovered House on the Hill, one of the many nonprofit groups working to fill the affordable housing gap while local governments secure funding and build permanent residences. House on the Hill provides food and housing assistance to low income families, and through its Guest House program, those in need can access emergency and temporary transitional housing.
“People come to us from all over the place, some come from recovery, some come with no employment, some come with young families, some come as single parents, so it’s a wide array of folks that come to us, but we’ve removed those barriers,” said executive director Joel Hawkins.
Participants, like Berry, are encouraged to look beyond their immediate housing needs when they apply. They work with Hawkins and nonprofit volunteers to set both short-term and long-term goals to encourage financial independence once the one-year transitional housing timeline is up.
“The only goal we have is that they’re gonna be paying their housing expenses by themselves at the end of the year. The rest of it’s their goals, what they want to accomplish. So, it may be a job promotion, it may be getting employment, it may be getting back to school and getting a degree to get back into the workforce,” Hawkins said.
House on the Hill pays for roughly half of Berry’s rent in a home that they found for her family. Since moving into the space in February, she says she’s been empowered and encouraged by the nonprofit’s team, including board chair Beth Wheeler, who have helped in ways beyond finding a home.
“Joel and Beth have helped me set up my 401-k with Walmart, helped me understand the buying of stocks, so it’s not just like you get into this program and they help you pay half your rent. I mean they really help, like when I first moved in, I didn’t have a washer and dryer, and they were like, ‘Well if you can’t find one that’s within your budget, we’ll help you out,’” she said.
While Berry is a success story for the program, the city’s need for 14,000 new units is a daunting task for a tiny nonprofit. The small group of staff members and volunteers is working toward expanding the Guest House program.
“We have the capacity for about 15 units when it comes to transitional housing. Right now, we have five, but we have 45 people right now on our waiting list, and we’re trying to get through those applications to see, one, what we have available to meet their needs. And then, two, to see exactly what their needs are if it’s something we can meet or not based on the housing that we have available,” Hawkins said.
In Kentucky, roughly one third of renters are at or below the poverty line, and spend more than half of their income on rent or housing expenses. Resources for housing assistance are available through the Kentucky Housing Corporation, the City of Bowling Green, and through the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development.
