Louisville Collegiate School denied request to demolish affordable housing

Great news: on Wednesday night, the Cherokee Triangle Architectural Review Committee rejected a proposal for Louisville Collegiate School to demolish the 48 units of low-cost housing at Yorktown Apartments for a parking lot!

We joined the voices of many in opposition to this demolition in November, and at Wednesday night’s hearing, a Coalition staff member (and Highlands resident) voiced this opposition alongside nearly two dozen other tenants, neighbors, and community leaders.

While we applaud the courage and vision of the committee to vote no, we shouldn’t have to defend scarce affordable housing at a committee focused on architecture. Why is it we have review boards to preserve buildings but nothing to protect poor Louisvillians in low-cost units from the destruction of their homes?

As a community, we must urgently prioritize protecting tenants and unhoused people—and on preserving affordable housing in a city where the need is so great and the consequences of not having it are so dire. We look forward to listening and working together on ways to do this.

We stand with all of you who spoke up out against the demolition of these units. We believe housing is a human right, and we will continue to do all we can to prevent an occurrence or recurrence of homelessness for all Louisvillians today and in the future.