Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority

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MISSION STATEMENT
 

The Lexington Housing Authority will provide safe and desirable affordable housing to low and moderate income individuals and families while partnering with other agencies to enhance our community involvement and the self sufficiency and higher quality of life for our residents.

OUR HISTORY

  • Public housing is funded by the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development

              (HUD)

 

  • Owned and operated by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Housing Authority

              formerly known as the Lexington Municipal Housing Commission (established 1934)

 

  •  In 1937 the intention of public housing was to provide temporary housing for middle

               class families badly hit by the depression.  As is true in the case of so many

               government programs, though, public housing outlived the depression, several wars

               and even the postwar building boom.

 

  • Lexington's first 286 public housing units opened in 1937 at Bluegrass-Aspendale. 

              During this time America's racial segregation policy was also reflected in public

              housing. The Housing Authority built Aspendale for black residents and Bluegrass for

              white, separated by a barbed wire fence. In the late 1960s and 1970s integration forced

              an end to segregation in public housing and the barbed-wire fence came down.

 

  • The Lexington Housing Authority’s housing stock grew over the decades with

              Bluegrass-Aspendale eventually growing to 963 units and the addition of Lexington’s

              second largest public housing site – Charlotte Court.  Initially, 206 units were built at 

              Charlotte Court and opened in 1941, eventually growing to 356 units. Over the years

              the agency began to construct smaller developments. The Housing Authority

              recognized the advantages of constructing smaller communities on scattered-sites in

              suburban neighborhoods.

             

  • Bluegrass-Aspendale, Lexington’s oldest and largest public housing site opened in

              1937 (963 units); November 2002 – 279 units demolished at Bluegrass and Aspendale

              Circles; final demolition began October 2006

 

  •  Charlotte Court built in 1946 (350 units); demolished in 1999; replaced by The Arbors

               subdivision (single-family homeownership community)

 

  • Smaller scattered public housing sites emerged in the 1980s making larger barrack-

              style sites obsolete

 

  • With the advent of HOPE VI, public housing is making significant changes for the

              better for communities all over the country.  Lexington’s first public housing

              developments have been eliminated.  HOPE VI is a program of the U.S. Department of

              Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  This federal program was created in 1992 as

              a result of recommendations from the National Commission on Severely Distressed

              Public Housing who was charged with developing a plan to eradicate the nation’s worst

              public housing stock.

 

  • Lexington has received two HOPE VI grants including $19 million for the successfully

              completed Charlotte Court Revitalization and $20 million for the current revitalization of

              Bluegrass-Aspendale.