When Brigid Robine tried to find housing for an 18-year-old wheelchair user who had been forced from their home, she encountered what a statewide housing advocate describes as a fragmented system of homeless services.
“We don't like sending people on a wild goose chase either,” Adrienne Bush, executive director of the Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky, said.
Bush said gaps in services are especially pronounced in rural parts of the state, where assistance may be limited by geography, funding or eligibility requirements.
“We have this patchwork of homeless services available in different parts of Kentucky,” Bush said. “We have real service deserts in our rural parts of the state and so then when someone does get caught up in housing insecurity, we (may) only have a program (that) covers a couple of counties, but it may only cover veterans, or it may only cover people trying to escape intimate partner violence.”
The Homeless and Housing Coalition of Kentucky is a statewide advocacy organization focused on homelessness and affordable housing policy. Founded in 1987, the coalition works with partner organizations and policymakers and says its mission is “to eliminate the threat of homelessness and fulfill the promise of affordable housing.”
Robine encountered those limitations while trying to find immediate assistance for the teen. During the Aug. 13 Murray City Council meeting, she said HOPE Calloway offered a motel stay and transportation to an out-of-area homeless shelter. Robine said the teen was already staying in a motel and ultimately declined the shelter option.
HOPE Calloway Executive Director Amber Sugg later told The Sentinel that the organization does not operate an emergency shelter but can provide emergency assistance, including motel stays, transportation and referrals to shelters and other services. Sugg said shelters throughout the region vary widely in capacity, eligibility requirements and the services they provide.
Robine said HHCK later directed her to Merryman House in hopes of obtaining another referral. She said Merryman House told her its services were limited to people affected by domestic violence and referred her back to HOPE Calloway.
Bush said Robine’s experience illustrates how people fall through the cracks when services are divided among agencies with different geographic areas, funding sources and eligibility requirements. Even with approximately 100 housing authorities across Kentucky, she said, those differences contribute to a fragmented system.
“But I think what this person is experiencing in the Purchase Area is something that is not uncommon, because of our fragmented homeless response and housing system across the board,” Bush said.
Kentucky uses a coordinated-entry system for homeless services that, in theory, provides a lead agency for each Area Development District, or ADD, she explained.
Bush pointed to the federal McKinney-Vento Act as one example of a policy intended to provide support for students experiencing homelessness. The law is designed to remove barriers to education for homeless children and youths.
But Bush said that type of support does not continue into higher education.
“There's nothing like that at the college level, and so one potential policy fix here would be to have that for our publicly funded regionals and land-grant institutions,” she said.
Bush said such a policy would address only one part of a much larger housing problem.
“We have a 200,000-unit housing shortage in Kentucky that is causing extreme scarcity in the market and in communities all across,” Bush said. “It's not a Louisville problem. It's not a Lexington problem. It's a problem in Murray.”
According to the Kentucky Housing Corporation, the statewide housing supply gap was 206,207 units in 2024 and is projected to reach 287,120 in 2029.
Bush said the shortage is especially difficult for low-income Kentuckians and people facing other barriers to finding affordable housing.
“It's almost like our housing system becomes a game of musical chairs, and those with the most barriers lose out first,” she said.
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