Housing Authority of Bowling Green Executive Director Abraham Williams knows all too well that the city has a growing need for affordable housing.

“We have more than 250 people on a waiting list” for HABG subsidized housing, Williams said Thursday.

Now, with help from city and state funds, Williams is taking steps to whittle down that waiting list.

His comments came just moments after he and other leaders of the Housing Authority’s Live the Dream Development subsidiary cut a ribbon signifying the opening of a triplex apartment building at 500 Graham Drive in Bowling Green’s west end.

The apartments were built as part of a nine-unit development that includes units on Brownslock and Old Barren River Roads and was funded in part by $1.5 million worth of grants coming from the city of Bowling Green through the Kentucky Department of Local Government.

Williams said the total project will cost about $1.9 million and is an investment in meeting a growing need in Bowling Green that was spelled out in the research done for the city by Bowen National Research.

That study showed that median rent in Bowling Green and Warren County for a two-bedroom apartment jumped from $675 in 2019 to $930 in 2023 and that median single-family home prices ballooned from around $200,000 in 2019 to nearly $300,000 in 2023.

Williams said that Live the Dream will be able to offer the two-bedroom, 900-square-foot apartments constructed by Bowling Green’s Builders by Design at a below-average rent of $800 per month.

“We wanted to keep the price low,” said Williams, who said that people are already living in the Old Barren River Road apartments that are designated for elderly renters.

“About half of the people on our waiting list are age 55 and over,” he said. “Their rent is going up, and they can’t afford it anymore.”

Both Bowling Green Mayor Todd Alcott and city Neighborhood and Community Services Director Brent Childers said it was an easy decision to steer the grant funds to the Housing Authority.

“Abraham and I have worked together for about 14 years,” Childers said. “When we got the call for this grant opportunity, we knew Abraham would do it and do it right.”

Williams said he plans to add six more apartments to the four already developed on Old Barren River Road.

And rental units aren’t the only items in the Live the Dream strategy to provide affordable housing. Thanks to the $1 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds allocated in 2022 by Warren Fiscal Court, site work is underway on a 22-house development abutting the Housing Authority’s Garvin House property on Fort Webb Drive near Bowling Green Country Club.

“We hope by August those lots will be ready to start building,” Williams said. “We’ll start with 22 units, but we can build more. We have about 30 acres.”

Williams expects the three-bedroom houses of about 1,400 square feet to sell for $210,000 each.