With two-year anniversary of eastern Kentucky flood near, thousands still without adequate housing

Saturday marks the two-year anniversary of the worst of the flooding that devastated much of eastern Kentucky and thousands are still without adequate housing. The nonprofit Housing Development Alliance serves residents of three of the hardest hit counties – Breathitt, Knott and Perry – and Leslie County. Mindy Miller is their director of development and communications.

“So far we’ve built 27 homes for flood survivors. We’ve rehabbed 82. We’re working very steadily, but that’s just a small fraction of what’s needed.”

Miller estimated 4-thousand homes in their four-county service area still need to be replaced or heavily rehabbed – and the people who lived in those places are frustrated.

“I don’t blame folks for wanting to get in those homes as quickly as they can, because they’re either living with family or they’re living in a circumstance they’re tired of, they want their own home, their own space. So we see that and we also have a lot of folks who call us and they’re like, ‘When are you going to start building my house?’”

Miller said one of the people waiting to move into a new home is the widower of the only flood victim whose body wasn’t recovered.

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