Paducah leaders work to combat growing housing issue
PADUCAH, Ky.(KBSI) – Western Kentucky is facing a growing issue with homelessness and according to city leaders the fix isn’t as simple as just getting a job.
Lacy Boling, is the Executive Director of Paducah Cooperative Ministry a faith-based organization that’s helps families in Western Kentucky who are hungry or homeless. She shares that homelessness in McCracken county is on the rise in a big way and they have run out of options on where to put people.
“Sometimes it’s easy just to say homeless people choose to be homeless but it’s a lot of times that we can’t find places for those folks to go” says Boling.
This is in large put due to fair market wage. Families are working but not making enough to cover the high rent rates, leaving many people to choose between things like food and rent. Boling says this problem isn’t an easy fix.
“One thing would be building more houses, but it’s more complicated than that” says Boling.” Ya know we’ve experienced a lot of tornadoes lately and that is depleting our stock really quickly and there aren’t as many homes being built because there aren’t as many construction companies as there used to be.”
The McCracken County area has more than 700 people facing homelessness and she believes fixing the issue will take a community effort of people collectively coming together.
“Its going to take a collective narrative and it’s going to be a collective solve and say hey in order for our communicates to be more desirable is that we may have to take smaller profits at first for our friends and neighbors to be more successful in the long run and our communities to be more successful in the long term” says Boling.
Boling shares that the City of Paducah is working on several projects to help the rapidly increasing need.
Such as plot purchases on the South Side of Paducah, and incentivizing builds and landlords for more affordable housing and ownership on the South Side as well as working with the Housing Authority of Paducah to try to combat the issue.
For those in the McCracken County area facing homelessness Boling says they can help.
“If you’ve experienced homelessness in the past and you’ve found yourself with an apartment and you’re having some trouble with that down payment of rent we are able to help you financially with that down payment or first month’s rent. That is something that we can help with. In 2025 we switched our focus to homeless and hunger specifically.”
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