Grant funding awarded to two Western Kentucky organizations as McCracken County faces housing crisis

PADUCAH, Ky. (KBSI) – Two different organizations in the Paducah, Kentucky area will soon see grant funding to help them build more housing in Western Kentucky.

Executive Director of Paducah Cooperative Ministry Lacy Boling says although this is a step in the right direction, Paducah still faces a housing crisis. 

“Our county is 3805 units short, and we counted last year 160 homeless folks in our county. That doesn’t count the folks that are couch surfing and staying in homes with other people” says Boling. 

The federal home loan bank of Cincinnati announced their 2025 affordable housing program grants.

Two recipients in Western Kentucky were awarded grant funding, according to the program $52,200 was awarded to the 2025 heart of Paducah homebuyers’ program and 1.5 million was awarded to the Merryman Village housing project.

Boling says this will help combat the McCracken County housing crisis, but more affordable housing is needed.

“52% of our folks that we’re already serving, reported domestic violence; the Merryman house has a waitlist, we have a waitlist. So, we know that there are people who are not being served as quickly as they need to be served” says Boling.

 Mary Foley is the Executive Director of the Merryman House Domestic Crisis Center. The center provides life changing services to those affected by domestic violence including transitional housing and mental health services.

Foley shares that the 1.5-million-dollar grant is a piece of the 12-million-dollar funding they need to complete the project.

 “That money is actually a piece of a larger funding proforma and so that money was critical. You know, if that money had not been awarded, then the overall project would not have been able to go forward. Likewise, if the rest of the project isn’t awarded, the project would not be able to go forward” says Foley.

If they are awarded the second grant needed for the project, they will then start working on building a 48-bed housing facility that will be located in Paducah and is estimated to take around two years to build.

Foley says affordable housing is a key part in helping those affected by domestic violence.

 “In general, it is in a, what we would call and what most people in the field call a housing crisis, an affordable housing crisis” says Foley. “So somewhere around there, somewhere around 200,000 more Kentuckians needing housing than exists and so I think there’s a housing crisis problem that certainly folks in our community feel.” 

Building plans for Merryman Village Merryman-Village-Apartments-07142025-DR202300301216V5.pdf.