NKY homeless shelters rise to meet increased demand for help amid housing crisis

Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties all ranked among Kentucky's top 10 counties with a housing gap according to the most recent meeting of the Housing Task Force aimed at solving the state's affordable housing crisis.

One of the main solutions mentioned time and time again during the two-hour session was simple: build more affordable housing.

The path to that, however, was not so simple as pointed out by George Eklund, director of education and policy at the Coalition for the Homeless.

"Even if we start building today, this problem is going to take years," Eklund said.

In the meantime, shelters that serve those who've been driven out of housing due to skyrocketing home and rent prices have increasingly turned to facilities like Fairhaven Rescue Mission in Covington for help.

The mission has given out more than 20,000 meals so far this year, ministered to those who've chosen to stay for services, and welcomed more than a dozen men to stay in their emergency shelter each night.

Director Alan Johnson said the facility is deep cleaned each day with fresh sheets available out of respect for their clients.

"They're seen. They're heard. They matter. They're loved," Johnson said.

Johnson said their duty is to not just provide a temporary shelter for people in the community but rather to give them the tools to get a home and keep it.

"We find a lot of folks that come through our doors, they've never had that person to walk alongside them, whether it be a mentor, an aunt, an uncle, a family member," he said. "We encounter folks who've been on the streets since they were teenagers."

The 40-year-old facility has a one-year-long program in which a handful of people "transition" out of homelessness called the New Life Program.

In it, Johnson said they equip clients with the basics like guidance to a high school diploma, a license or ID, skills training and more to walk out career-ready.

"Just affording a house is difficult for lots of folks who aren't homeless so that problem becomes magnified when anyone has this issue of homelessness," he said.

Nearby at the Brighton Center , Vice President Ellen Bates said longterm programs like Fairhaven's and their own programs are key to solving the rate of homelessness when prices come down.

She said they have 45 programs spread across eight departments built to serve the larger community, but the demand for help has been growing.

Bates said they served more than 31,000 people in the last fiscal year.

"All of these services are really vital to the fabric of our communities that help individuals succeed," she said.

Both organizations said volunteers and donations were key to their continued success, and welcomed as much help as they could get.

Watch Live: