Honoring President Jimmy Carter, Continuing His Work

FRANKFORT, Kentucky — Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) joins the nation in celebrating the life and accomplishments of President Jimmy Carter today, which has been declared a National Day of Mourning in observance of his December 29, 2024, death.

A champion for affordable housing, President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, worked for more than 30 years with Habitat for Humanity building homes through the Carter Work Project. Their travels took them across the United States and to 14 countries, working with more than 100,000 volunteers to build close to 4,500 homes.

In 1997, the Carter Work Project led two builds in Appalachia (pictured above and below), including Hammerin’ in the Hills in Eastern Kentucky. They constructed 205 homes throughout the region, including 43 in Kentucky.

About 3,000 volunteers, including many from KHC, worked alongside the Carters and future homeowners as well as then First Lady Hillary Clinton, then House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Crystal Gayle, and the Oak Ridge Boys. At the time, the families they served made, on average, $13,000 per year, and 16 percent of the residents in the area did not have plumbing.

In the foreword of If I Had A Hammer, a book about Habitat for Humanity’s work, President Carter wrote, “What Rosalynn and I have seen time and again is that when people become homeowners, their dignity and self-respect increase dramatically. Because they’ve worked so hard themselves to complete the home, they become filled with a new pride that inspires them to reach for other things that they previously considered out of their grasp, such as an education.”

Honoring President Carter’s Legacy

The need for affordable housing in Kentucky continues. KHC conducted the Kentucky Housing Supply Gap Analysis in 2024 and found that the state needs to construct 206,207 units to meet the current housing needs and 287,120 to meet the state’s projected housing needs in five years.

Pike County, where 25 of the 43 Hammerin’ in the Hills homes were built, has an overall supply gap of 2,007 homes – 821 rental units and 1,186 for-sale units.

Many rural or non-urban counties had larger gaps relative to their overall population, and lower income renters were disproportionately affected by the housing shortages.

The housing gaps in both Eastern and Western Kentucky were exacerbated by the natural disasters in 2021 and 2022 that damaged or destroyed nearly 5,000 units.

The Kentucky legislature create the Rural Housing Trust Fund in 2023 to help rebuild those areas, and in 2023 and 2024, KHC awarded local partners:

• $13.5 million to construct 116 new single-family homes and to repair 45 single-family homes in Eastern and Western Kentucky
• $4.5 million to construct 128 rental units in disaster-impacted counties in Western Kentucky

Through the Carter Work Project and his involvement in Habitat for Humanity, President Carter said he hoped to not only build more homes, but to also raise awareness of the need for more affordable housing. The Carters’ involvement over the years brought international attention to Habitat for Humanity and its work.

In Kentucky, KHC continues to advocate for fair and affordable housing. Throughout the last year, KHC representatives have met with local and state representatives, partners and organizations to discuss the need for more housing, the impacts housing gaps have on the state and local communities, and potential solutions municipalities can explore.

KHC mourns with the country and others around the world at the loss of President Carter and extends our sympathies to the Carter family.