Bowling Green to build new community off Highway 185

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – On Tuesday night, the Bowling Green City Commission voted to approve the acceptance of an award from the Kentucky Department of Local Government in the amount of $5 million.

With that money, the city is teaming up with Habitat for Humanity to build 70 new homes off of Highway 185. The city says that this is a great opportunity, especially for first time homebuyers, to have cheap options when it comes to purchasing their first homes.

“The hardest home to buy if your first home. That’s really the challenge. Once you get that first one, then you can start building equity that you used to buy the second one and then move that on to the third or fourth. But this is an opportunity for a lot of those first time homebuyers to have that first shot of realizing. They’re paying rent or they’re making the payments, they’re doing all the things they can, but to actually grow wealth you need to have an asset. And, homeownership is that opportunity to have that real strong asset to build from,” said Brent Childers, director of Neighborhood and Community Services in Bowling Green.

Across the country housing prices have increased, and Bowling Green is not immune from that. That problem was emphasized after the 2021 tornado that destroyed hundreds of homes. Habitat for Humanity was a big part of the rebuilding process, helping to put tornado victims back into homes, and they’re ready to take action once again.

“We’re four years out from the tornado now. And so families who are directly impacted, mostly have found their housing, but our entire community was impacted by that. The housing market was impacted by that. We saw rent prices go up. And so just to be able to offer an opportunity to be able to build wealth back into your own life, to have a place you can come home and know it’s yours. We’re we’re ready for that. We’re ready to do that,” said Habitat for Humanity’s executive director Rodney Goodman.

Like all projects, though, challenges will arise. But for Habitat for Humanity, they know they can overcome all the challenges thrown their way. It’s just about patience, and providing the best quality housing as quick as they can.

“I think we’ll be constantly dissatisfied with the pace. We’ll want to be building houses as fast as we can. But on the other side of that, we want every house to be of the highest quality, and we want every family that works with us to have the best experience of our program. And so we’ll constantly be battling to build as fast as we possibly can out here,” said Matt Sheffield, chief development officer for Habitat for Humanity.

The 14 acres of land will have 70 homes built with some multifamily homes, and mostly single family homes. The city is expected to close on that property soon, with the expectation to have everything finished in 2027.