It’s felt in the empty lots where homes once stood, in a reliance on few and costly rentals, in the long drives to difficult jobs, and in the determination of families doing their best to make it through another day.
Residents of 2021, 2022, and 2025 Eastern Kentucky floods, learn if you are eligible for a Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) housing program. Disaster impact is prioritized, but not required.
Kalynn Kirchoff had some major bumps in the road on her journey to home ownership. In 2020, she was diagnosed with melanoma cancer. In 2022, the apartment she and her son, Calan, lived in flooded.
There was no time to think. The walls buckled, and the trailer split like kindling, water rushing through the gaps. It swallowed their furniture, their photographs, the life they’d built together. Clinging to each other, George and Sherry tried to stay upright in the torrent, their feet scraping for anything solid beneath the rising current.
Clinch-Powell RC&D, under the leadership of Executive Director Lindy Turner, is addressing the housing crisis in Tennessee’s Appalachian counties by offering a comprehensive range of services, including homebuyer counseling, rental assistance, and affordable housing development.
“Until you’re safely and affordably housed, you can’t begin to work on whatever challenge or opportunity you have for yourself,” says Mary Ellen Judah, CEO & Executive Director of Neighborhood Concepts, Inc (NCI), who creates lasting economic and housing opportunities for underserved communities in Alabama.