Northern Kentucky’s Housing Solutions Menu
Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies
Northern Kentucky now has 50 strategies on how to increase housing throughout the Commonwealth. Some might wonder how long it will it take to create a building boom in Northern Kentucky. In a housing study from 2023 called Northern Kentucky Housing Data Analysis. the Northern Kentucky Area Development District discovered that the region needed 6,650 additional housing units of all types.
In response to the housing study, in collaboration with local leaders, private and nonprofit organizations, and other key stakeholders they released the Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies. This report was made to address housing shortages across Northern Kentucky with 50 housing strategies.
A press conference, summarized 50 strategies such as adaptive reuse, choice voucher programs, rezoning, etc. Many of these strategies we have highlighted as solutions in our reporting but for other communities. These housing responses fit into ten thematic categories, per the report.
- Addressing neighborhood blight
- Building permits and inspections
- Community engagement
- Enhancing communication and awareness
- Homeownership Assistance Programs
- Planning and Zoning
- Public Housing Effectiveness
- Tools and Incentives
- Transportation and Infrastructure
- Workforce Development
During his presentation Campbell County Judge-Executive Steve Pendery was most concerned about how to attract workers if there isn’t enough housing.
“In this particular area, we are dealing with a workforce issue that threatens to strangle progress that we’ve made. Workforce development is critical in the current era of a very tight labor market–in the entire country, not just here [Northern Kentucky]. These facts lend an urgency to our efforts. We are in a competition for workers to support our quality of life. That is a reason why many of the strategies are written with employer needs in mind.” said Pendery.
The general idea here is to support economic development where you need businesses to thrive, and for businesses to establish, they need workers. To attract and keep local workers, communities need affordable and available housing. That means each community must address the types of housing that fit the best.
But why 50 strategies? As we’ve reported, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to housing. That’s the same for Northern Kentucky, as it is for Cincinnati and Dayton and everywhere between.
Different options for different communities
The challenge is Northern Kentucky is comprised of eight uniquely different counties. “What works in our urban communities may or may not work in our suburban communities and our rural communities” said Sharmili Reddy, the executive director at Planning and Development Services of Kenton County. What Reddy is speaking to is the methodology of Home for All. The goal is for communities to have a menu of options that custom fit the contours and culture of a community.
Reddy explained that these strategies can meet the needs. “There’s just so many things that can be done, to accommodate more townhomes and condos and quads and duplexes and all these different styles of housing that can accommodate such a wide variety of populations.”
With this diverse area with different needs, every region may be more inclined to one solution over the other.
2023 Northern Kentucky Housing Data Analysis
NKADD worked with consultant group Stantec to conduct the 2023 housing study. The main goal was to figure out what was stifling the economy. Out of all the reasons, housing became the most prevalent. Executive director at NKADD, Tara Johnson-Noem, spoke about the variety of homes needed in the area.
“We know that some of our areas are really seeking to attract those, young adults. So, they may need more rental units. We know we have some communities that are looking to attract those working families. They might need larger homes. The market is continuing to evolve,” said Johnson-Noem.
According to the realty group Riverside Valley Group, within the last six years, there have been about 26,000 new residents who moved into the region. To ensure these new residents – and existing residents – are being accommodated, the NKADD organized a group of 90 people consisting of stakeholders, planners, elected officials, employers and more. The group met almost monthly for a year to create plans on how to increase the housing stock.
Simultaneously, The Brighton Center, a local nonprofit focused on supporting the financial stability and independence of residents, conducted a series of housing data walks across the region to inform the public and seek feedback to the 2023 housing study. Stephanie Stiene, director of financial wellness and volunteer engagement at the Brighton Center, said the data walks were eye opening to all of the residents that attended.
“People have been shocked by the data. That’s what we want to hear more…educating and sharing the data points so we can all together come together and offer solutions,” said Steine.
After almost a year of monthly meetings organized by NKADD and the data walks by the Brighton Center, NKADD held a meeting in November of 2024 to share their findings. The result: the creation of the Home for All strategies.
Homes for Whom?
Who will Home for All help. Brent Cooper, president & CEO at Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, says the strategies offer income-aligned housing. “If we look at the shortages that we have throughout our region, it’s shortages really at all levels. We don’t have enough of the higher end homes. We don’t have enough of the lower end homes.”
Cooper adds that if something isn’t done to help remedy the shortage, our region’s essential workers will be affected the most.
“I think if we don’t do anything, we are going to find ourselves in an increasing hole of not having housing for workers that we’re bringing into the community. Whether that’s nurses, teachers, police, manufacturing, logistics, etc… we will see increasing costs because we don’t have the housing stock to accommodate.”
Bradie Bowen, former teacher and administrator for 22 years in the city of Covington, attended a housing data walk in August of 2024. She sees some of her first-year teachers facing housing struggles. “So, our average market rate, one bedroom in Covington is about $1,400 right now. So, my first-year teachers couldn’t afford to live in a market rate apartment in Covington. Honestly, they don’t get to that level to meet the 30% burden for probably like 14, 15 years even.”
What Bowen is speaking to is a reflection on the rest of the country. According to a report by Harvard University in 2022, half of all U.S. renters—22.4 million—were cost burdened, meaning they were paying over 30 percent of their income on housing and utilities.
Due to the struggles to find housing, a lot of young people eventually move to other states to find better housing opportunities which is something Boone County Judge/Executive Gary W. Moore wants to stop. “As a grandparent, we want our grandchildren and, in some cases, children to be able to come back to our community… We don’t want them to have to move somewhere else to be able to afford to live.”
Judge Moore says the only way to retain the talent is to provide housing to public sector employees and entry level workers.
Tailor made solutions from Home for All
One of the strategies highlighted in the study as being the most effective is the regional housing trust fund. This fund would act as a resource for any community to utilize however they see fit. Communities could use it for: down payment assistance; offering very low or no-interest debt; incentivizing new development or redevelopment; supporting down payment assistance; emergency rental assistance; and more.
President and CEO of the Brighton Center, Wonda Winkler, sees value in the versatility of the trust fund idea. “That could be accessible to be able to address needs but could be customized to the needs of the community, whether that is supporting, you know, nonprofit development, whether that helping to advance homeownership,” said Winkler.
According to the National Low Income Housing Association, in 2023, local housing trust funds generated more than $3.1 billion for affordable homes in the U.S.
Another highlight on the menu of strategies is innovative housing pilots, which would allow communities to pilot neighborhood aligned projects and then monitor to see if they are working or worth scaling up. This “check and see” approach could help alleviate the biggest hurdle in any community: NIMBYism versus YIMBYism.
Potential Hurdles: NIMBYism versus YIMBYism.
NIMBY (not in my back yard) and YIMBY (yes in my back yard) speak to the two ideologies when addressing housing development. The case for both ideas is complex but for this article we will circle one of the main points which is density. The NIMBY set typically goes against high density in an area while the YIMBYs are usually supportive. An example of this can be seen in Independence, Kentucky where density concerns initially blocked a housing development called The Haven at Liberty Grove which would bring 124 condo units spread throughout 16 buildings.
Seth Cutter, vice president of public affairs at the CVG Airport and one of the contributors to Home for All, detailed how the mayor of Independence, Chris Reinersman, had to go to some communities and sit down with residents to alleviate concerns residents had for increased density in their neighborhoods. Cutter shared how the mayor, “talked for two hours with the folks to educate them about what was really being proposed, hearing what their concerns were, going back to the developer throughout that process.”
Ultimately, a part of the collaboration will require engagement with the public to at least get majority support for a strategy. There are reports that the nimby versus yimby debates hurt housing development, but according to Cooper doing something will help “make our community extremely competitive and a great place to live work, play, learn, and give back”.
Next steps… other solutions in Northern Kentucky
Since the housing study there have been several county-level attempts to address the housing needs. An example of this is in the city of Covington, where Mayor Ron Washington says preservation is a large focus for increasing housing in the city. “We have many vacant lots here in our city, and we have many homes that have been vacated for various reasons. These properties do not produce taxes. We need, as a community, to embrace a strategy to get behind filling those homes.” said Washington. The mayor is also working on an affordable housing plan with Covington businesses.
NKADD will continue to be an asset to all eight counties as they develop their plans. Colton Simpson, deputy judge executive in Grant County, says it will be on each county to figure out how they will go about incorporating the strategies in their areas. “I think you’re going to see a lot more collaboration between local leaders and, with all of them on the understanding that with more housing means more workforce, which means more money for the people that live and work here,” says Simpson.
Home for All can help lead to more housing with community buy in. Even though there are a litany of strategies to get there, some say if Northern Kentucky wants to see the economic growth they desire, it will start with more affordable and available housing.
Hernz Laguerre Jr. – Multi-Media Journalist
Hernz is a Haitian American who was born and raised in Spring Valley, NY. He attended school at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, where he learned to hone his skills as a storyteller. After graduating with his Bachelors in Broadcast and Digital Journalism and his Masters in Television Radio and Film, he went on to a career in media as a producer, reporter and freelance videographer for companies like ESPN and Court TV. He eventually moved to Detroit, where he worked as a Multimedia Journalist for The Detroit News and then the NPR affiliate, WDET, before starting his work with the Brick by Brick team at CET and ThinkTV. Hernz aims to produce stories that tell the bigger picture while doing his due diligence to educate and inform the public about the solutions-focused work being done in the Cincinnati and Dayton areas.
