Partnership Housing along with several other community organizations in 2006 started a local Repair Affair. Repair Affair is a one day housing event where volunteers from all over the state of Kentucky and Indiana come to Owsley County to help repair homes. Repairs are typically replacing doors, replacing windows, replacing floors, and painting, building porches or wheel chair ramps. The 2006 Repair Affair committee raised over $4,000 in local funds to help six low income families and individuals. Partnership Housing wrote a successful application to Kentucky Housing Corporation to receive $10,000 to help with Repair Affair 2007. The Repair Affair committee raised over $2,000 in local funds. Repair Affair 2007 helped twelve families and recruited over 104 volunteers. Partnership Housing wrote another successful application to Kentucky Housing Corporation and received $10,000 in funds for Repair Affair 2008 and raised over $2,000 in local funds for Repair Affair 2008. Repair Affair 2008 helped 10 low income families or individuals and recruited 73 volunteers for the event. Currently Partnership Housing is planning for Repair Affair 2009. Kentucky Housing Corporation granted $10,000 in funds to Repair Affair while local organizations have given over $2,000 in funds so far. We anticipate helping 10 individuals or families with Repair Affair 2009.
Mrs. Short became a certified housing counselor in June of 2006. Shortly after that time Partnership Housing became a HUD approved housing counseling agency. Mrs. Short provides housing counseling in the following areas of mortgage loan process, credit counseling, budgeting, predatory lending, foreclosure prevention, fair housing counseling and home maintenance.
Small non-profits like Partnership Housing have suffered significantly in the past few years to the dwindling economy. Funding for domestic programs has been cut significantly to fund the military. USDA’s 502 Home Loan program which offers low interest rates (1-5%) has suffered significant budget cuts. Without programs like these low income families in Rural America would not be able to purchase or build decent, safe, affordable homes. Goo old George Bush for several years tried to pass a budget with no funding for the 502 program!
Owsley County Statistics
Owsley County, population 4,858, is historically a small-scale farming area, not a coal-mining county. Without adequate sources of employment, it has evolved into the poorest non-Hispanic white county in the country, with an overall child poverty rate of 56%. The U.S. Census 2000 shows 2,162 individuals or (45.4%) of Owsley Countians living at poverty levels compared to 621,096 or (15.8%) in Kentucky as a whole and more than triple the national average of 12.4%. In fact, US Census 2000 shows Owsley County as the poorest county in Kentucky, the poorest county in the thirteen states that are included in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and the seventh poorest county in America.
The median household income of $15,800 in 1999 was less than half of the U.S. non-metro median of $33,700. More than a third (36 percent) of children in Owsley County have no working parent in the household; this is the fourth-highest rate of all the counties in the country. There are 587 (41.7%) of Owsley County families living in poverty which is more than four times the national average of 9.2% and 661 (56.3%) of children under 18 are living in poverty. (US Census) The 2007 Economic Report for the Commonwealth of Kentucky shows that in Owsley County, 61.9% of all children under the age of 18 were living in poverty in
2005. This was the second highest under the age of 18 poverty rate for a county area in
the entire nation. This represents a significant deterioration from 2004, when 48.0% of all children under the age of 18 in Owsley County were living in poverty.
The latest Kentucky Labor Market data shows an 10.1 unemployment rate for Owsley County as of December 2009. This figure is more than the December 9.7 national average. According to Ron Eller, Professor of History at University of Kentucky and former Director of the University of Kentucky Appalachian center this number is deceptive as it does not include the large number of discouraged workers who have been unemployed for so long that they are no longer able to apply for unemployment insurance and thus are not counted. If a real unemployment rate were calculated for Owsley County the employment rate would exceed 50%. There is very low labor force participation -- just 39% or 1,373 compared with 60 percent for all non-metro counties nationally. Of this 1,373 working, some 259 must drive from 45 to 90+ minutes to work. Two major businesses that provided employment to Owsley Countians, Mid South Electronics and Sourcecorp, a data entry plant closed in 2007 leaving hundreds of people seeking employment.
There is a very high incidence of disability among people ages 21 to 64 (42 percent compared with 21 percent nationally). Educational attainment is low, with 34 percent of adults having completed less than one year of high school, compared with 9 percent nationally. Census data shows that only 49.2% of Owsley adults have high school diplomas as compared to 80.4% nationally. Owsley adults with college diplomas are at 7.7% compared to a national average of 24.4%.
Owsley County’s isolation in the mountains of eastern Kentucky means that there is not access to four lane highways. The three main highways that lead into Owsley (Highway 11, Highway 28 and Highway 30) are all winding two lane roads with the nearest four-lane thirty or more miles away. This creates difficulty in attracting any type of industry. The major employers are local government, the local school system and a nursing home.
Of the 2,247 housing units in Owsley County 84% or 1,894 are occupied. Six hundred and thirty (28%) of those are mobile homes and 1,691 (75%) were built before 1990 and 258 or (11.5%) were built in 1939 or earlier. There are 1,334 (60%) houses that have between three and five rooms with an average of 4.9 rooms per household. Approximately 88 (4.6%) of the housing units lack plumbing, 35 (1.8%) lack kitchen facilities and 237 (12.5%) lack telephone service. Median value of the 616 owner occupied homes is $40,800. (US Census 2000)
The 369 (16%) renter occupied housing units have an average rent of $276 per month. Government subsidized rental apartment managers maintain a continuous waiting list of more than 40 persons.
The majority of households or 621 households (32.5%) and the majority of families (1,408 or 26.4%) have incomes of less than $10,000 which is more than three times below the national average. One thousand one hundred and twenty three (59%) earned their income, six hundred and seventy three (35.2%) have social security income, while 508 (26.6%) depend on Supplemental Security Income. (US Census) According to the Kentucky Kids Count; 2007 County Data Book, seven hundred and sixty-two (over 90%) of Owsley County students are qualified for free or reduced lunch.
The historic lack of economic and housing development has caused the property tax base to become stagnant.
Surveys from the Kentucky Housing Corporation’s Consolidated Plan are conducted throughout the state as a means of determining housing needs. These surveys show that obstacles to home ownership include high housing prices, home buyers not able to accumulate funds for down payments and closing costs and poor or no credit. Documentation shows that there are not enough three or four bedroom apartments, duplexes, houses or trailers for all low-income families that need them.
