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How Louisville is making it easier for unhoused people to get jobs around the metro area

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How Louisville is making it easier for unhoused people to get jobs around the metro area

Louisville Metro Government will be required to accept job applications from residents living in homeless shelters thanks to a bill championed by Councilman Jecorey Arthur.

The ordinance is meant to reduce homelessness and allow residents without a permanent address to get jobs with the city and its vendors. Louisville Metro Council unanimously passed the change Thursday.

“I’ve spent a lot of time in our shelter system and I’ve met people who are employed, and they told me they only got employed because they were able to use a shelter as an address on their job applications,” Arthur said at a July committee meeting, going on to add “some people can’t get housing because they can’t get employed, and some people can’t get employed because they can’t get housing.”

The new law will also allow potential employees to use homeless service provider addresses on their applications and requires that “no applicant shall be rejected solely on the basis of the individual’s housing status.”

The ordinance applies to vendors who contract services with the city if the value they provide is at or above $5,000, and it gives the government power to terminate contracts with vendors if they do not allow people who use shelter addresses to apply for jobs. It also requires an annual report by Metro Human Resources to show compliance.

The ordinance comes amid pervasive homelessness, a gaping vacancy rate in Metro government jobs — which hovered around 26% at the end of February — and a steadily climbing overtime rate, The Courier Journal previously reported.

It also builds on an ordinance passed by Metro Council in 2014 deemed “ban the box,” which prevented the city and its vendors from asking about convictions on job applications.

Louisville’s Coalition for the Homeless and the national organization Love Beyond Walls wrote letters of support for the ordinance. Other organizations, including YouthBuild Louisville, Seven Counties and House of Ruth, signed onto the coalition’s letter.

A few Louisville shelters, like St. Vincent de Paul, already allow people to use their addresses when applying for jobs. Arthur hopes the ordinance will encourage other shelters and businesses to follow suit.

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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