Northern Kentucky’s Housing Solutions Menu

Responding to a study in 2023, Northern Kentucky is trying to increase their housing stock. Local leaders and non-profits collaborated to create a menu of options called Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies. We look at some of the 50 solutions included and talk to stakeholders about the next steps.

Interview guests: 

Tara Johnson-Noem, Executive Director at Northern Kentucky Area Development District; Mayor Ron Washington, Covington Kentucky; Stephanie Stiene, Director of Financial Wellness and Volunteer Engagement; Judge/Executive Gary W. Moore, Boone County; Brent Cooper, President & CEO at Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce; Colton Simpson, Deputy Judge Executive in Grant County, KY; Seth Cutter,  Vice President of Public Affairs - CVG Airport; Sharmili Reddy, Executive Director of Planning and Development Services of Kenton County; Wonda Winkler, President & CEO at Brighton Center, Inc.; Bradie Bowen, Covington KY Resident (Former teacher and administrator for 22 years)

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Transcript

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Northern Kentucky is comprised of eight unique counties with a similar challenge.

Bradie Bowen:

If you are in that gap of people who don't get any assistance but can't afford a market rate apartment, you're out of luck.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

A 2023 housing study shows that the region needs nearly 7,000 additional housing units to support economic growth.

Brent Cooper:

There are a number of things that the community can do to help businesses attract and retain talent, and housing is a big piece of that,

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

And there's not just one type of residence. They need a mix of apartments, condominiums, homes, and other kinds of housing to meet the needs of everyone from empty nesters to young professionals.

Judge Gary Moore:

As a grandparent, we want our grandchildren and in some cases, children to be able to come back to our community. We don't want them to have to move somewhere else to be able to afford to live.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

On today's episode of Brick By Brick, we examined Northern Kentucky's housing journey this past year. What are some of the strategies they hope solve their housing needs? How do they plan to get the community on board? Let's dive in. This is Brick by Brick Solutions for a thriving community.

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to leading support from AES Ohio Foundation, Greater Cincinnati Foundation and George and Margaret McLane Foundation, with additional support from Laurie F. Johnston, Murray and Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation, The Robert & Adelle Schiff Family Foundation, and more. Thank you.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Hello, and welcome to Brick by Brick. My name is Hernz Laguerre Jr. Filling in for Ann Thompson. This past year we have featured solutions to the affordable and available housing crisis in Cincinnati and Dayton, such as adaptive reuse, zoning, preservation, just to name a few, but let's look out to the greater Cincinnati area a bit more south, where Northern Kentucky is working on a few solutions of their own. But before we get to their solutions, let's start from the beginning. Coming out of the pandemic, much like the rest of the country, Northern Kentucky employers were trying to figure out what was preventing employees from making it back to work. They looked at several reasons such as parents needing childcare, transportation struggles. Baby boomers retiring early and the list goes on. Executive director at the Northern Kentucky Area Development District, Tara Johnson Noem, tells us the biggest struggle was housing,

Tara Johnson-Noem:

But then we came to housing and we were hearing that it was a barrier. There was a growing concern, but we really felt like there was not necessarily a deep enough connection to the data on who's working in our community and then how do they relate with their wages, with the distances they were traveling to their job. How did that connect with housing issues?

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Tara and the rest of the Northern Kentucky Development District essentially created a network of local leaders, stakeholders, elected officials, nonprofits and more, and connected them with a consultant group called Stantec. They conducted research with the community groups, and out of that came the Northern Kentucky Housing study in September of 2023. This study was funded by the eight county fiscal courts and CVG. This study found that there was a major need for housing at all levels. The 2023 study said Northern Kentucky needed about 6,500 housing units. Then the question became, okay, we know the problem, but what do we do now? So from January to November of 2024, all of the movers and shakers I listed earlier met to devise a plan to solve this housing shortage. In partnership with the development district, a nonprofit organization called the Brighton Center conducted these events called "Housing Data Walks" to get a sense of what the community wanted and to inform them about the study. I spoke with the director of Financial Wellness and Volunteer Engagement, Stephanie Steine at the Housing Data Walk in Erlanger, Kentucky back in August of 2024. She said, residents who attended the data walks felt validated because the struggles they were facing personally were also being felt by the greater community.

Stephanie Stiene:

People have been shocked a little bit with the data, and so that's what we want to hear more of is educating, sharing the data points so we can all together come together and offer solution.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Bradie Bowen, a Covington Kentucky resident and a retired teacher and administrator of 22 years shared the struggles some first year teachers have with finding housing.

Bradie Bowen:

This study actually backs up one of the things that I've been talking about with people in my study. So our average market rate one bedroom in Covington is about 1400 right now, so my first year teachers couldn't afford to live in a market rate apartment in Covington. Honestly, they don't get to that level to meet the 30% burden for probably like 14, 15 years even.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

So let's fast forward to November of 2024. Elected officials and stakeholders from across northern Kentucky hosted what I like to call a housing summit, where they gave an update on the housing market and community driven discussions that have occurred since the release of the Northern Kentucky Housing Data study. Brent Cooper, president and CEO at Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce spoke about the need for diverse housing for residents of all generations,

Brent Cooper:

And what we're seeing is that people that are elderly, for example, are holding onto their homes for eight to 10 years longer than they used. If you've got a kid at home who's just graduated college, they can't find an apartment, they can't find a new home, and so they're living at home with parents. We're seeing that more and more often if we open up these lower units that will give young professionals a place to go and our older parents a place to go, which then will free up spots for families.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Boone County Judge and executive Gary Moore wanted to paint a picture of some of the workers that are affected when there is a housing shortage.

Judge Gary Moore:

Many times it's our police officers, our firefighters, healthcare workers, teachers, they're making a good salary, but they can't afford a $400,000 home yet. They will someday, but not yet. So if we're going to provide housing for our public sector employees and entry level workers, we've got to solve this.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

The summit featured stakeholders who were all in on backing solutions proposed during the discussions, but to me, it felt like they were preaching to the choir, so to speak. There was talk during the summit of how the biggest hurdle was nimbyism. Nimbyism is when people agree there's an issue, but when those same people are approached with new developments in their area, they say, whoa, not in my backyard. Seth Cutter, vice president of public affairs at the CVG airport spoke about the efforts some local leaders had to make in order to get people on board with new development in their area.

Seth Cutter:

The Mayor of Independence, Chris Reinersman really talked about this today, where they had this past year a development project that was pretty controversial, and he talked about different community members both nearby and in general, really being objective to that, and he went into that community, into that neighborhood and sat in the folks' living room and talked for two hours with the folks to educate them about what was really being proposed, hearing what their concerns were. Going back to the developer through the process and coming up with a solution that really, it's never going to make everybody happy, but brought along a lot of different folks in that process.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

In Independence, Kentucky density concerns initially blocked the development called The Haven at Liberty Grove, which would bring 124 condo units spread throughout 16 buildings. These are some of the concerns city leaders will have to face when talking to their residents. Cooper says, it's well worth it in order to secure a better economy for Northern Kentucky.

Brent Cooper:

I think if we don't do anything, we are going to find ourselves in an increasing hole of not having housing for workers that we are bringing into the community.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

At this point, Northern Kentucky is coming to terms with its true housing needs, so what's to be done about it? Coming up next on Brick By Brick, the housing study develops 50 strategies to help housing in the area, and it's on each town and city to pick up the mantle.

Colton Simpson:

It's now going to be up to these individual communities, these individual counties, to look at what they have, look at their demographics, look at how much money people make, what kind of houses they need, and luckily, this report tells exactly what that is,

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

And later on we sit down with Covington Mayor Ron Washington to discuss how Covington has been able to increase their housing production, followed by Tara Johnson Noem. We speak to her again to hear the next steps of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District. Stay tuned

Ame Clase:

Brick by Brick is made possible thanks to the generous support of so many, including Diane and Dave Moccia, P & G, The Camden Foundation, The Stephen H. Wilder Foundation, Rosmary & Mark Schlachter, a donation in memory of Frank and Margaret Linhardt, The A. T. Folger Jr. Lowe Simpson Fund and more. Thank you. We couldn't do this work without you.

Mark Lammers:

Hey, we all have a different story even if we grew up in the same neighborhood or city, especially if we're talking about housing stories. Hi, my name is Mark Lammers, executive producer for Brick by Brick. Growing up, I lived on the west side of Cincinnati in a single family home, but I've also experienced apartment life in good and bad settings in a number of different cities. I learned a lot from those times in my life and from my journey as a whole. Now, we want to hear about your housing story. That's the new audience question that's live on our show pages@thinktv.org and cetconnect.org. Log in and hit the green button to share your journey and what you learn from it. We hope to share some of your experiences and lessons as we move forward on Brick by Brick so we can all get smarter together. Thanks.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Welcome back to Brick by Brick. On January 14th, 2025, community leaders in northern Kentucky gathered for a press conference as they released the report home for all Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies. This report is a culmination of efforts made since the 2023 housing study to discover what strategies, what solutions could help fill the housing gap. This report featured 50 strategies, some we've covered on our podcast already, such as zoning changes, ADU strengthening, the choice voucher program, adaptive reuse, and more. At the press conference, they emphasize how the 50 strategies provide a wide range of housing solutions for the community to consider

Sharmili Reddy:

What works in our urban communities are not going to work in our may or may not work in our suburban communities and our rural communities.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

That was Sharmili Reddy, Executive Director of Planning and Development Services at Kenton County. She said any one of the solutions offered could make a difference in the eight counties.

Sharmili Reddy:

There's just so many things that can be done to accommodate more townhomes and condos and quads and duplexes and all these different styles of housing that can accommodate such a wide variety of populations, but we just don't see it built that much anymore.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

One of the strategies that stood out to me was the regional trust fund. Wanda Winkler, president and CEO at the Brighton Center elaborated on this tailor made solution,

Wonda Winkler:

The regional housing trust fund. Together, we could rally resources that could be accessible to be able to address needs, but could be customized to the needs of the community, whether that is supporting nonprofit development, whether that's helping to advance home ownership strategies. There's a lot of ways to be able to use a housing trust fund.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

According to a national Low Income Housing Association in 2023 in the United States state and local housing trust funds generated more than 3.1 billion for affordable homes. At the press conference, there was a lot of discussion of how bolstering up the housing stock could create a wave of change in the region. Deputy Judge executive in Grant County, Colton Simpson details what that could look like.

Colton Simpson:

I think that more affordable housing, better inventory of housing will just have a trickle down effect that will help Northern Kentucky in a much better way. I think you're going to see a lot more collaboration between local leaders and with all of them on the understanding that with more housing means more workforce, which means more money for the people that live and

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Work here. One of the cities that was applauded for being ahead of the curve with housing efforts is the city of Covington. I sat down with the mayor Ron Washington to discuss the current housing stock in his city and what can be done currently to reduce the shortage. Take a listen. Mayor Ron Washington, thank you so much for joining us on Brick by Brick.

Mayor Ron Washington:

Thanks for having me. Appreciate being here.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Now as the newly elected mayor, what are some of the main problems you wanted to find solutions for?

Mayor Ron Washington:

One of the main problems is housing here in Covington, we have a vibrant community. We were named one of the best 50 cities in the United States just last year by Money Magazine. I understand people come here to our community, they live, they work, they play. We're building a lot of homes, but some of those homes are out of the reach of what I call the citizens that I've already been here. I call it south of 12th Street. What's that mean? South of 12th Street, north of 12th Street. There's a lot of economic development, a lot of new people coming here. South of 12th Street, not so much. It's a little bit, we have people in my family that actually have to live on a couch at their parents' house, and these are tax paying working citizens in our community that are producing and they're having struggles to find housing in their income bracket. So me being an elected office, I see this every day. I see my family every day. I understand the struggles, and I think as part of my job is to bring them solutions as I see it.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Speaking of solutions, early this year, the Northern Kentucky Area Development District released: "Home for All: Northern Kentucky Housing Strategies", which includes 50 strategies to increase housing in the area, in the region. Out of all of those strategies, which ones do you feel would be the most effective in Covington and why?

Mayor Ron Washington:

Well, I appreciate the ad district doing the study and participating. When they looked at the city of Covington, they said in the next five years, the city of Covington should expand its housing stock by over 800. One thing that they did in the study is they pointed towards people that are like school teachers and police officers and service people that aren't able to afford housing. The other thing the study pointed out that we already knew here at City Hall is that we need to take advantages of our vacant lots. We have many vacant lots here in our city and we have many homes that have been vacated for various reasons. They're called Aris property. These properties do not produce taxes. These properties actually are boarded up by the city because people have abandoned them, and so we need as a community to embrace a strategy to get behind filling those homes and how do we do that? We have to obtain those properties some way and then we have to turn 'em over to the people of Covington so they can live in those houses so they can build up those neighborhoods. That's one thing that the study identified.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

We like to ask everybody this on our podcast, what makes a thriving community, but specifically to you? I like to ask, what makes a thriving community in Covington? What does that look like and what needs to change to get there?

Mayor Ron Washington:

A thriving community in Covington is some of the things that we're already doing, but the biggest thing is we're the no judgment zone. We've always been that blacks, whites, republicans, democrats, independents, gays, straight, doesn't matter. We're all loved here in Covington and we need to embrace that and we need to thrive upon that, and I think that'll continue to make our city grow.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Well, mayor Ron Washington, thank you so much for joining us on Brick by Brick. Thank you. Tara Johnson Noem of the Northern Kentucky Area Development District details what's next for the group after this report release? Take a listen. Tara Johnson Noem, executive director at the Northern Kentucky Area Development District. Thank you so much for joining us on for my break. Appreciate it. I'm curious as how you would describe the current housing stock in Kentucky. How would you describe it?

Tara Johnson-Noem:

Well, the one thing I would say is it's changing. If I had to say in one word, that's probably what I would say is because keep in mind, the original data study came out in 2023, and the great news is is that we have a strong construction and building community in our region that is rising to the challenge to come up with new ways to meet the demand. It's not like we're doing this and everybody's just sort of waiting. Right. The market is continuing to evolve and change based on what those companies are seeing. As far as demand as well, I think in general, we do definitely have some gaps as far as additional units that are needed, especially for some of our key components of our population that we know continue to struggle with price, so older adults, people that are trying to downsize, and so we know that while it's changing, there's still some gaps that need to be filled, and that's where we hope that the menu that we came up with for the Home for All will help communities come up with ways that they can address those challenges for the people that live in their community and the people that they want to attract to their community.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Speaking of the menu Home for All since the release this past January, what has been the reaction from the public?

Tara Johnson-Noem:

I think it's been really positive. I have been working in this public quasi-governmental public sector for a long time, and this is not always a conversation that we could have had, just to be honest, but

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Why is that, if you mind me asking? Well,

Tara Johnson-Noem:

I think typically in the past we've seen housing as something that the market can kind of handle on its own, and actually for many, many years that was probably the case, but with some of the challenges that we're seeing higher interest rates and the market maybe just not moving the way it has, there's a lot of challenge for builders right now. Cost of supplies is very high. It's hard to find workforce, which is why we originally came to this conversation in the first place, but it's hard for the construction industry just like it is for every industry, and so people are just in a different place and they're seeing it in their own families, so I think that's just where we are in a different place where we can have that conversation, and I think when people are seeing themselves in a report that talks about challenges that folks are having, it makes it easier to have that conversation.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

What are the next steps for your organization in maybe partnership with them, a different approach that you guys are taking moving forward to continue to help with the housing effort? What are the next steps?

Tara Johnson-Noem:

Yeah. Well, one of the things that has been really energizing for us as a team here at the Area Development District is we always serve as a technical advisor for our communities. If they come to us and they need assistance with something, and so we have had a few communities that have come to us and said, Hey, based on the menu of options, based on the Home for All report, we we'd like to pursue this strategy. Will you help us either write that plan or will you help us apply for a grant? And so I can't of course talk about exactly what those are yet, but we are looking forward to continuing in our role to assist with convenings as they make sense, bringing the community together, and we're certainly looking forward to continuing to be a technical advisor to our communities and help them achieve the goals that they come up with.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

If these strategies are incorporated. How will Northern Kentucky look in the next 10 to 15 years?

Tara Johnson-Noem:

Yeah, that's a great question. I think if they're incorporated, I hope we have more home ownership, which is great for those homeowners. It's great for the economy, it's great for stability of communities, but we're definitely going to also need rental, and we need rental for a lot of reasons. Sometimes people move here with some of our large multinational corporations and they know they're only going to be here for like a year or two. It doesn't make sense for them to maybe buy for whatever situation they're in, they want to rent. The great thing about Northern Kentucky is that we have beautiful countryside and bustling cities and everything in between, really in a very short and tight space. We can be in the country in 25 minutes. We can be out to Big Bone State Park very quickly, or we can be in downtown Cincinnati very quickly too.

It's one of the great things about Northern Kentucky. We want to keep that character while also finding places that work for everybody, and so that might mean infill, right? It might mean that we find ways to repurpose existing properties in new ways. It might mean that we have additional density in certain communities that are open to that so that we still have open space in other communities, right? I think hope in 10 years, it just means that my two sons, who by then will be starting out on their own, have a place that they feel comfortable moving back to.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Well, Tara Johnson Noem, thank you so much for joining us on Brick by Brick.

Tara Johnson-Noem:

It was great. Awesome. Thank you.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Remember, if you want to learn more about Housing solutions and what makes our community thrive, go online and you'll find plenty of resources including web articles, video and audio stories, and special online extras. Go to CT connect.org and think tv.org, and while you're there, click on one of the big green buttons and tell us your housing journey. We'd love to hear from you. You all have probably heard enough from me on this episode, so as we normally do here on Brick By Brick, it's time for takeaways, and joining me is my fellow multimedia journalist, Emiko Moore from Dayton. What's up, Emiko? Hey, Hernz, how you doing?

Emiko Moore:

Good, good. How are you?

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

I'm doing all right. Ann left me some big shoes to fill, so hopefully I'm doing all right, but hey, I wanted to get sense of what Northern Kentucky is doing in the region. What are your thoughts?

Emiko Moore:

I think what they're doing is interesting because they are making this a priority. When you think about the need for housing for essential workers, policemen, firemen, teachers, service workers who work in the city but can't afford to live there, that's a problem. I like that they put together this menu of solutions that give clear definitions and choices to them. When you were talking to the mayor, Ron Washington, I thought it was really interesting that he was going to put together this panel of advisors, and these are people that are actually working out in the field, the home builders, the nonprofits, along with the city staff and bankers and people who know the housing system. I think you should also include homeowners or people in the community or people who want to be homeowners to come into this and talk about what's really going on. I think it might be very illuminating for everyone,

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

And as you were saying that, it made me think about this article from Common Edge. They're a nonprofit organization dedicating to reconnecting architecture and design with the public that is meant to serve, and they had an article called NIMBY versus YB. How to Debate is Worsening the Housing Crisis, and the article goes into depth of how NIMBY and YIMBY is affecting the housing crisis, but I'll summarize it by this. You have NIMBY on one side, not in my backyard, who say, no density. We don't want to see a lick of density. Then you have YIMBY that says yes to all the density, and those are two very extreme sides of the conversation. Maybe there's something in the middle, somewhere in the middle where we can find a solution. Maybe it leans more towards nimby, maybe it leans more towards ybi, but regardless, it's doing something.

Brent Cooper who was on our podcast, he said, Hey, it's okay if you don't like every single strategy of the 50 that we presented, but we got to do something. We have to pick one thing that makes the most sense to your community, and let's do that in order so that we could help out our firefighters, policemen, janitors, teachers who are looking to be a part of this thriving community. But Ako, there were 50 strategies. We had almost less than 30 minutes. What were some of the strategies that you saw that we didn't get a chance to talk about?

Emiko Moore:

There was one that is called Innovative Housing Pilots, where they have a residential pilot project to explore a wider variety of housing types and price points, and I thought this was really interesting because you could really showcase various housing types. We've covered a lot of them too, but Container Homes, modular homes, 3D printed homes, accessory dwelling units, which are also known as Granny Flats or Backyard Cottages. You could have a mini home orama for some of these and let people come and see how they work, get a sense of the size, get an idea of the price and the cost, and feel what it's like to be there.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

No, yeah, that would work for me because I'm very much of a visual and tactile learners, so I need to see something. I need to fill something in order to understand it. Me too. Well, Emiko Moore thank you for joining us on this takeaway.

Emiko Moore:

Thank you.

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

On the next episode of Brick by Brick Governments nationwide on 276,000 acres that could be turned into urban housing,

Reina Chano-Murray:

And if we use a conservative estimate for low density development, so say seven units of housing per acre, government and owned land alone could support the building of approximately 1.9 million homes

Hernz Laguerre, Jr.:

Hear how The Center for Geospatial Solutions is leveraging technology to help local policy makers. That's on the next episode of Brick by Brick. Well, that's it for our show today. Thank you for taking the time to listen. I truly, truly appreciate it. It was my first time in this hosting chair and I enjoyed every minute. Thank you for the company. If you like what you hear, please rate and review our podcast and of course subscribe so you don't miss any of the solutions that we share. We hope you learned something and hey, if you did, please share with your friends and your family so they can learn too. For Ann Thompson and Amico Moore, I'm Hearns Laier Jr. We'll be back soon with more solutions. Take care.

Our show is produced, hosted, and edited by Ann Thompson with reporting and story editing From yours truly, Hernz Laguerre Jr. and Emiko Moore.Our Executive producer of Mark Lammers. Our show consultant is Gloria Skurski. Gabe Wimberly is our audio engineer and mixer. Zach Kramer runs the lights and cameras. Derrick Smith is our production specialist and Jason Garrison is our production manager. Kellie May heads up our marketing and promotions, along with Mike Shea and Bridgett Dillenburger. Elyssa Stefenson handles the website and Steve Wright is our designer. Bill Dean and Andres Kruza are the engineers for the show and our Chief Content Officer is Colin Scianamblo. Our music is from Universal Production Music. Brick by Brick: Solutions for a Thriving Community is a production of CET and ThinkTV, Southwest Ohio PBS member stations.