The landlord incentive program would give landlords $2,000 for renting to people experiencing homelessness, who are clients with the city’s Housing and Support Division of the Office of Resilience and Community Services. The clients are identified by referrals from a coordinated entry process by the Coalition for The Homeless.
The city will provide landlords an incentive contract and release the first installment of $1,000 ten days after the client signs a 12-month lease for a unit. The remaining $1,000 will be provided at the end of the lease.
Joseph Hamilton, manager of Louisville Metro’s Office of Resilience and Community Services Housing and Support Division, said the goal is to house people and also increase the supply of affordable housing.
“We know that there are property owners and landlords out there that maybe are on a smaller scale that we've never worked with. And so really, the idea with this is to add as much housing supply and as much safe and affordable housing options that we can for the clients we serve, which… are some of the most vulnerable – homeless and disabled individuals in the city,” he said.
Clients aren’t responsible for paying rent while participating in this program. Instead, Continuum of Care assistance offered by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development would pay their rent. The assistance is not tied to the client’s current income levels the way Section 8 vouchers are.
People who meet the current HUD definition of homelessness or have a documented disability provided by a third-party medical professional are eligible. The assistance is valid for 12 months, by which time service providers will try to get people into more stable housing and make sure clients can pay rent on their own.
“The hope is that our landlords will be willing to partner with us because we have the federal grant monies paying for the ongoing rents through the entire lease period, and the wraparound essential services to help ensure that clients remain housed,” he said.
Hamilton said the more options clients have, the better. They would get to see which unit they want to lease. After inspection and move-in, Hamilton and his team would meet with the property owner to have them sign the contract and receive their first incentive payment.
Hamilton said since the program’s launch late last month, he’s received an encouraging response from local landlords. None have entered into an incentive agreement yet.
Tamara Reif, senior director of Housing Services at Volunteers of America Mid-States, said the biggest challenge is finding landlords who can take in vulnerable populations, but offering an incentive could help.
“There's just not enough landlords out there who have property for rent that is in the price range that the voucher is part of, and the landlord still sort of says, I’m not really comfortable with doing it this way. This is not how I want to do it,” he said.
Some landlords may not want to rent to people experiencing homelessness because of the stigma they associate with them, Reif said. For example, families and people may be learning to live independently. Landlords worry that means they don't have the ability to take care of the home or the people in it, she said.
“If [landlords] have the ability to get more of a deposit, then if something does happen, they have that money to be able to fix something that may go wrong. And so I think that's also a good incentive that does help,” she said.
Reif said she also tries to help landlords understand they are giving somebody a chance that wouldn't otherwise have that opportunity.
Hamilton said the wraparound services that the Housing and Support division provides would help them keep a close eye on their client’s needs and resolve any issues that could arise between the landlord and tenant. If there is excessive damage, he said, they will be able to cover a second security deposit with federal grant funds.
If it does lead to a lease cancellation before the 12 month period, Hamilton said the city agency will help the client find alternate housing.
Other cities have also launched landlord incentive programs with COVID-19 relief funds. Hamilton said he’s looked to Rhode Island’s landlord incentive program.
It offered more money: Participating landlords received a $3,000 signing bonus for the first unit, and $1,000 bonuses for each additional unit. Up to $3,000 per unit was offered for any necessary repairs. Those funds went directly to landlords, while rent was paid by housing vouchers.
Programs like these can be limited by funding and availability of vouchers. Reif said VOA is always in need of more vouchers to get their clients housed. Currently wait times for vouchers average 4-6 months and can take longer, she said.
“The faster we can find landlords, the faster a family or an individual can move out of the shelter system, which then provides an opportunity for somebody else to get access to that shelter bed, instead of being on the street,” she said.
The city of Wichita’s housing authority started a pilot program in 2022 to incentivize landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers. The city touted it as a success in getting more people housed, and the program ended in September 2023 after reaching the threshold of 800 vouchers, and American Rescue Plan act funding allocated for the program dried up.
Louisville’s program wouldn’t be able to provide units for all the people experiencing homelessness. And the number of people experiencing homelessness has grown. As of January 2024, the annual Point-in-Time count by the Coalition for the Homeless showed more than 1,700 people were unhoused. That was more than a 10% increase over the year before.
Louisville’s pilot program, which is active and will end in September 2026, is funded with $234,000 of American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief funds. City officials expect that to cover 117 units over the 1.5 years.
The plan for now, Hamilton said, is to give out 10-15 incentives per month.
“Over the next year-and-a-half, we may be able to put our heads together and try to find a grant or find additional resources to continue the incentive program,” Hamilton said.
At the end of the day, Reif said more affordable housing is the answer to reducing homelessness.
“Having rent in areas that is three times the amount that the voucher is, it doesn't help anybody become housed again, as opposed to being houseless,” she said.
More information on the program is available here.
