According to the Kentucky Courts database, evictions in Rowan County shot up by a thousand percent between 2015 and 2025. Housing advocates said that’s largely due to bigger rental corporations moving into the region and taking over the market. The city of Morehead and MSU chapters of Kentucky Tenants will host an event raising awareness for the community’s needs, called ‘Housing for the Holler,’ on April 30.
Kentucky Tenants will lead sessions on crucial components of affordable, safe, and quality housing. According to the organization, these include tackling poverty, housing discrimination, and lack of choice for tenants. Two thirds of Morehead residents are renters, and according to the Morehead-Rowan County Economic Development Council, Rowan County is short more than 1,100 total housing units.
Annette Hines, organizer of the Kentucky Tenants’ Morehead chapter, said their work doesn’t just involve current renters in Morehead. Their definition of tenants also includes people looking for rentals and homeless or transient people who have been affected by rental policies.
“A lot of times, those people were renters and they were affected by evictions. And so, that is one thing that we are very interested in fighting against because there are a lot of little laws people don’t know about evictions,” said Hines. “For example, evictions follow you forever. They’re on your criminal record, and if you live in a household and you’re a minor, they can put you on that eviction.”
The MSU Black Gospel Ensemble will perform at the beginning of the event, followed by speakers and breakout sessions. Hines added one of the key talking points will be a proactive rental inspection campaign, encouraging officials at the city level to construct an ordinance mandating inspections of properties.
“Especially Air B&B’s too, to ensure compliance with health and safety codes. We want them to create clear and safe standards that landlords should have to meet, and we’d like to focus on identifying issues such as toxic mold, pest infestations, structural problems, electrical problems. These are things that can hurt, you know, they hurt our communities,” said Hines.
The ‘Housing for the Holler’ event is set for 6 p.m. at the Morehead Conference Center on April 30. Registration is free and open to the public until the day of the event. Hines added, while the focus will be on Morehead, she hopes to expand the organization’s efforts to the rest of the county and beyond.
More information, including registration, is available on the Morehead Kentucky Tenants public Facebook group.