LOUISVILLE, Ky. — An outreach organization within the Louisville Mayor's office is investing more than $200,000 in grant money to help hundreds of the city's most vulnerable citizens maintain stable housing.
On Thursday, social workers with the Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN) hosted a cookout at the Dosker Manor apartments to discuss residents' housing options, as their future living situation remains in limbo.
Nannette Dix with OSHN is helping lead the "The Supportive Housing Project," an initiative to connect people to financial assistance.
"We're not here to tell you what to do, we're here to stand beside you and help you make those decisions for yourself," Dix told WHAS11.
Hundreds of people living at Dosker Manor are facing a major relocation from their long-time homes in the months to come.
The city has plans to eventually demolish the aging buildings and start fresh, but the Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA) is tasked with moving residents out first and ensuring they have a place to go.
"If you're a resident at Dosker Manor, you can't wait to get out," Executive Director Elizabeth Strojan said. "It feels like it's taking a really long time. I understand that -- I want to move faster too."
Voluntary move-outs are already underway, but the city can't proceed with full relocations until the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approves their plan.
HUD confirmed to WHAS11 that it's received LMHA's application, but said it's too soon to say how long it'll take to review it.
The decades-old public housing complex, the largest in Louisville, has been at the center of controversy for health and safety issues -- recently having two different power outages in one building within two weeks.
Dosker Manor largely houses seniors. Charles Gibson, 85, has lived in the C building for more than 15 years.
Right now, he's dealing with pests and a struggling AC unit.
"It's not working, it's not blowing any air," he told WHAS11.
LMHA said it plans to relocate all residents by the end of 2025, what Strojan calls both an aggressive timeline and one she admited is still too long for people plagued by the deteriorated facilities.
"It's not the home that I first moved into," said 73-year-old Deborah Pennington, who's excited to eventually move out of Dosker Manor. "This didn't happen overnight."
What remains the elephant in the room is the back rent that LMHA said many residents have accumulated since 2020. Officials said relocations can't happen without appropriate repayment agreements set in place.
Strojan said they're willing to work with people to ensure they receive relocation benefits, adding that residents don't have to get their balances to zero. But she made it clear repayments must be kept low.
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