Louisville’s plans to build a centralized campus for individuals and families experiencing homelessness will include transitional housing for young people.
Construction of the Community Care Campus, a partnership between Louisville Metro and Volunteers of America, began last September. Officials envision it to be a kind of one-stop shop for homeless services, with a family shelter, community center and on-site affordable housing. It’s located near Interstate 65 and Breckinridge Street, where the Vu Hotel and C2 event space used to be.
On Tuesday, city officials and service providers announced $650,000 in funding to turn the Vu Guest House into 15 transitional housing units. The funding, provided by the Jewish Heritage Fund, a Louisville-based nonprofit, will cover the cost of renovations and a full-year of operations. The units will be reserved for people ages 18 to 24.
Jennifer Hancock, president and CEO of VoA Mid-States, said people in this age range are at particular risk for becoming homeless.
“Some of these individuals have been engaged in the foster care system, the Department of Community Based Services,” Hancock said. “They age out of care and fall over that cliff and, without those services, find themselves in crisis.”
Hancock said young people are the fastest-growing demographic of people experiencing homelessness in Louisville. In 2024, YMCA’s Safe Place program assisted 158 young adults in accessing shelter and other services. That was up from 133 the year prior.
The 2025 point-in-time count found there are 1,831 people living on the streets or in shelters in Jefferson County.
The transitional housing for young adults will be located in the old Vu Guest House building on the Community Care Campus. That building is currently being used as a temporary shelter for families, who will move over to the old Vu Hotel once that space is renovated.
YMCA’s Safe Place Services team, which connects young adults to shelter through street outreach and a crisis hotline, will operate the transitional housing program.
Isaiah Daniels, a former Safe Place participant, spoke at Tuesday’s press conference. He said the program offered the support he needed to successfully transition to independent living after experiencing childhood abuse and the death of loved ones.
“I’ve been homeless multiple times,” he said. “The first time, I was at my lowest point. I thought I had no one else to turn to at all. That’s when I met some pretty amazing staff at Safe Place.”
Daniels said Safe Place staff helped him learn he could be “resilient, patient, strong and also stay positive no matter the situation I was in.” He’s now housed and employed at GE Appliances while working on his associate’s degree at Jefferson Community and Technical College.
Update on the Community Care Campus
City officials and VoA leaders said Tuesday that Phase 1 of the Community Care Campus should be complete by next spring.
Hancock said that includes the Unity House, an emergency shelter for families experiencing homelessness. Families there will have access to case management and housing placement.
VoA is also planning to move its administrative offices into the old C2 event center by the end of next year, along with other partners who will be providing services on-site.
Other parts of the Community Care Campus will take longer.
Plans for the site include a medical respite center to house 30 people experiencing homelessness who are recovering from health emergencies.
“We’re currently working on the design for medical respite and then we’ll be bidding out that project,” Hancock said.
VoA needs more guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before deciding how to incorporate affordable housing into the Community Care Campus, Hancock said.
“We’re working with our federal delegation to determine when we’ll have more [Housing Choice] vouchers available for the state of Kentucky, which would unlock the ability to have permanent housing on this campus,” she said.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Tuesday that the entire build-out of the Community Care Campus is expected to be complete by the end of 2027.
“The Community Care Campus is a national model for providing resources to help people get off the streets, stay off the streets and find a new, positive path in life,” he said.
Greenberg said the effort has required support from various community groups and public officials. The PNC Foundation provided financial support to open the temporary family shelter. And renovations to the campus are being funded, in part, by $22.5 million in state funding that Louisville received last year.
