homelessness

After a church in Muhlenberg County provided her with shelter, a woman experiencing homelessness landed a job just days later. While some are trying to help homeless people in the rural western Kentucky area, the woman says others in the community "try to sweep us under the rug like we don’t exist.”

In Muhlenberg County – a rural area with few resources for people without shelter – a loose coalition of people are trying to address a growing need to help those experiencing homelessness.

In 2022, Tennessee became the first state to make camping on public land a felony crime. A slate of new legislation will further impact people without stable housing.

Groups across Kentucky are taking part this week in an annual effort to estimate the number of people currently experiencing homelessness in the Commonwealth.

She told a police officer she was in labor. The Louisville Metro Police Department lieutenant cited her for unlawful camping as the ambulance arrived. She had a baby later that day.

Advocates say that, too often in Kentucky, people with mental illness cycle through jails and prison as a default for proper treatment.

Challenges are growing for people experiencing homelessness in Kentucky, but a group of housing advocates is offering a different path forward.

Nearly two dozen unhoused people in Louisville have faced bench warrants after they failed to appear in court for “unlawful camping,” as a result of the Safer Kentucky Act. Advocates say it's what they feared, but expected.

The Safer Kentucky Act, which penalizes people experiencing homelessness for camping outside, will take effect next week. Some service providers in Louisville say it’s going to make homelessness worse.

In a decision Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court gave wide discretion to states and localities to create policy around homelessness. It clears the way for a Kentucky ban on outdoor homelessness to go into effect in July.