Louisville Housing Demand Analysis (2015)

On December 18, 2015, Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission released the report Searching for Safe, Fair and Affordable Housing, Learning from Experiences: An Analysis of Housing Challenges in Louisville Metro.

In 2014, the Louisville Metro Human Relations Commission (LMHRC) published Making Louisville Home For Us All: A 20-Year Action Plan for Fair Housing, which contained a history of segregation and fair housing in Louisville and an action plan to, in one generation, tear down even inadvertent impediments to true fair housing choice. The report was supported by a grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

This report, also a publication of the LMHRC through a second HUD grant, follows up on the 20-year action plan and enacts one of its first action steps by filling the knowledge gap about specific challenges and needs that a diverse range of local residents contend with in finding and keeping suitable homes. The report has two main components: outcomes of focus groups of people in fair housing protected classes and a community data profile and geographies of where people in protected classes live and housing availability throughout Louisville. Combining both gives an understanding of housing choices, real and perceived, of a depth that has not been explored before

In addition, this report presents local residents’ descriptions of what they appreciate in their current living situations, what they would change if they could, where they would live if affordable housing was available everywhere, and what, if any, instances of housing discrimination they have experienced. The answers to this set of questions provide insight into identifying steps our community can make to become a home for all, the parts of our city/county in which residents most want more affordable housing, how to set priorities that increase housing choice, and what our local priorities should be in enforcement of fair housing laws.

This report is made possible by a grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The research was done by the University of Louisville’s Center for Environmental Policy and Management and the University of Louisville’s Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, with assistance from the Metropolitan Housing Coalition.

Download the full report (10.7mb)