In a press conference Tuesday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg announced construction is underway on the $58 million Community Care Campus in Smoketown, which will be operated in partnership with Volunteers of America.
“This facility will make it much easier for people experiencing homelessness to get connected with the resources and services they need to get off the streets, get healthy, get housing and get on with building new lives,” Greenberg said.
Earlier this year, the Kentucky legislature allocated a $100 million investment for downtown Louisville capital projects under House Bill 1, which passed earlier this year. City leaders intend to use $22.5 million of that to help fund construction of the Community Care Campus.
Senate President Robert Stivers, a Republican from Manchester, said investing in the Community Care Campus is part of “taking care of the needy,” and should be prioritized as part of revitalizing downtown Louisville beyond economic and tourism improvements.
“The mayor will make sure this happens — a great Belvedere, a great downtown from the purpose of being functional and aesthetically really good-looking. But it's not going to be someplace that people want to go to if there's a large homeless population in and around the area, they don't feel safe. And so, from a matter of economics and tourism, this needed to be the first project that got done,” he said.
The city is working with Miranda Construction, a prolific local firm, to build the campus. The Community Care Campus is also being funded with $19 million of federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits and VOA is actively raising funds.
The Community Care Campus will be ready by the end of 2027, Greenberg said. It will include transitional housing for young adults, permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness, a medical and behavioral health clinic, medical respite facility, community gathering space and a Louisville Metro Police Department office. VOA also announced 80 units of permanent supportive and affordable housing on campus will also be ready at the end of 2027. The project is called Monarch Station.
“This campus is also designed to reduce the burden that's felt by so many of our nonprofit partners who are doing such important work, yet every day are struggling to meet the demands for their services,” Greenberg said.
A Volunteers of America Mid-States leader said construction has started on Unity House, a family emergency shelter, as part of Phase 1 of the Community Care Campus. The former Vu Hotel and Guesthouse building on East Breckinridge Street will be converted into a shelter with 29 units and include a kitchen, dining area, laundry room and playroom for children. In May, VOA released a master plan for the multi-phase project.
Progress has been slow – the campus was first announced early 2023, and officials previously said Unity House would be ready by the end of this year and the Monarch Station units would open by spring 2025.
VOA President and CEO Jennifer Hancock said abatement processes for the emergency shelter have wrapped up, and demolition is scheduled for the next few weeks.
In the meantime, a temporary family shelter will be built to open by the end of this year in a different building on the campus, she said.
The city spent nearly $7 million to purchase several buildings for the campus in May 2023. Those buildings include the Vu Hotel, the C2 event space and others.
In August, LPM News reported that about a dozen people in Louisville had been arrested or cited by LMPD officers under the Safer Kentucky Act, which bans street camping and took effect in mid-July.
Hancock said Volunteers of America is also planning for an emergency or crisis service in the near future for people in distress.
“So that LMPD or other partners can bring them to the campus, they could have immediate access to assessment, triage and referral and to the service that's best suited for them,” she said.
Greenberg said the Community Care Campus is not the only solution the city is investing in to help people experiencing homelessness.
“There's not one solution, there's not one answer, and so we have to do a lot, and we are,” he said.
For now, the lack of available shelter space is a top concern for those supporting people who don’t have homes. Local advocates say there aren’t enough shelter beds to accommodate people who need them in Louisville.
