COVINGTON, KY — Covington took its first step Thursday toward addressing a growing housing supply crisis in Northern Kentucky, installing the first two of 15 planned modular homes on Pleasant Street.
Brandon Holmes of the City of Covington's Community Development department said the project is part of a broader effort to expand housing supply in the region.
"More houses means better supply. So this is just the start of what the city is doing," Holmes said. "Later on this year we'll have five more that are gonna also be developed on the north side of the site. We're planning for the south side right now and then 2027 we'll go ahead and get the south side of the site developed."
According to 2024 data from the Kentucky Housing Corporation, Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties are combined 25,000 housing units short of meeting their workforce needs.
WATCH: Covington leaders looking to add workforce housing to Pleasant Street
"There's so many people that are priced out even trying to find an apartment right now," Holmes explained. "What's nice about these projects is when it's all said and done, really someone should be able to buy one of these for close to what it's you're going to pay for a two bedroom apartment in Covington currently."
Devin Kroner, a licensed real estate agent with Epique Realty, said the project addresses a significant gap in the Northern Kentucky market. Kroner said it'd be very difficult to find a three bedroom home for $250,000 elsewhere in the current market.
"It's very difficult," Kroner told WCPO Thursday. "A lot of the homes that are selling that are in that price range are smaller homes ... one bedroom, two bedroom."
Kroner said the burden of finding solutions now falls on local government.
"The cities at this point have to lead the way, because again, the builders are just, they have to be able to make a profit or they're going to go out of business," Kroner explained. "But they're not building the inventory that we need."
You can find more information about the city of Covington's housing efforts on the city website by clicking the link here.
