Bowling Green, Warren County receives $9.5 million to build 128 homes

FRANKFORT, Ky. – New homes are coming to Bowling Green and Warren County to address tornado recovery efforts and the affordable house shortage.

According to a release, Gov. Andy Beshear announced $9,562,376 in funding to build 126 affordable single-family homes and two duplexes in Bowling Green and Warren County.

The funding comes from the 2021 Disaster Recovery Program. The program is administered by Kentucky’s Department for Local Government.

“Today marks another milestone in our Western Kentucky tornado recovery efforts,” Beshear said. “Housing has remained a top priority in those efforts, and today we’re taking a major step toward getting more Kentuckians into permanent housing. We promised to be there for the long haul, and we’re keeping our promise.”

The City of Bowling Green will partner with Habitat for Humanity Bowling Green/Warren County. Five million dollars will be used to build 116 single-family homes to be sold to income-eligible tornado survivors. The development is located at 0 Russellville Road.

“We are very excited about this new grant announcement of $5 million to Habitat for Humanity, leading to affordable homes in our community,” said Bowling Green mayor Todd Alcott. “More importantly, it’s going to lead to homeownership. The aftermath of the tornado is in our past, but our future is bright.”

Warren County will utilize $4,562,376 to build 10 single-family homes and two duplexes for income-eligible tornado survivors. Homeownership and rental options will be available. The location of the development is 247 Double Springs Road in Bowling Green.

“Attainable housing is one of our greatest needs, and this will help us,” said Warren County Deputy judge/executive Bryan Downing. “We thank the Department for Local Government, this program, and Governor, you and your team, for allowing this to happen.”

News 40 spoke to Mayor Alcott, who reiterates Governor Beshear’s point about looking towards the future.

“If you think about the storm that we had… December 11th was a very tough day,” said Alcott. “But that’s in the past, and the future is really bright for us… so this is about rebuilding Bowling Green… and so that continuation of promise that we have not forgotten… and it means that we’ll be able to have more people to have homes.”