LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The corner of 18th and Madison Street in the historic Russel neighborhood used to be a barber shop. An aging sign will tell you as much.
Sherelle Gore, an owner of Gore's SmokeOut BBQ, remembers her brothers went there for haircuts when they were younger.
"When I was a kid, there were restaurants right here," she said. "Like, Jay's restaurant, which is Franco's now. There was a fish market on the corner. So growing up, I'm used to there being food right here. To be able to come back and be one of those restaurants here is cool."
OneWest wants to develop the old barbershop with store space on the bottom floor and affordable housing up top.
It's covered by a $555,000 loan from the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund along with a different property on West Broadway across from the YMCA.
"It all starts with housing," said Christie McCravy, the affordable housing trust's executive director. "OneWest has a program that will help our disadvantaged young people that are trying to gain productive work skills. And also provide them with permanent housing while they're doing it."
In a press conference Tuesday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said the city would need to change land codes to allow for higher density affordable housing, but there's an issue with the trust.
"We also need to significantly increase funding for the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund," he said. Despite decades of operation, the city hasn't found a way to permanently fund the trust going forward.
It'll be important if they want to keep delivering for people who expect more.
"Over the years we lived here and were promised things that were gonna happen, but to see it actually happen now is exciting," Gore said.
As home prices continue to soar, those promises will be more important to keep.
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