Upinder Mehan, CEO of West Kentucky Allied Services, told the Marshall County Fiscal Court on Oct. 21 that the community action agency will restart its low-income heating assistance program in November and is expanding efforts on weatherization, housing and workforce initiatives.

Mehan said West Kentucky Allied, which is headquartered in Mayfield and serves eight counties in the Purchase region, uses the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) to tailor local programs. "One of the things that, we're probably best known for is something that's going to, begin again this November, and that's the low income heating assistance," Mehan said.

The agency reported roughly $8.5 million in combined federal, state and local funding and said it provided utility assistance to 10,000 households in the last fiscal year. Mehan said the agency helped more than 2,300 households with tornado relief and has weatherized almost 600 homes over the past 14 years. He noted the region's population is about 200,000 and said Marshall County's poverty rate was 11.7 percent in the figures he presented.

Mehan described two program types: short-term emergency help such as LIHEAP and rental or water assistance, and longer-term services including job training, housing support and health enrollment assistance through Connect (Kentucky's ACA portal) and KCHIP (Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program). "We work with insurance partners, as well as places like Kentucky Children's health insurance program, KCHIP," Mehan said.

On housing, Mehan said West Kentucky Allied is pursuing designation as a community housing development organization with the Kentucky Housing Corporation to begin creating affordable single-family housing and later explore multifamily options. He said the agency is also developing a living-wage program to work with repeatedly assisted, employed residents and their employers to close the gap between current wages and a calculated living wage, subsidizing the difference temporarily while providing training.

Mehan described weatherization as a major investment in the local housing stock that reduces utility bills and improves health and said agency weatherization follows Department of Energy guidelines. "We often see a reduction of up to 50%, if not more, in utility bills after we're finished working on a on a house," he said. He added that the agency performs energy audits and assessments of airflow before work begins.

Judge Spraggs introduced Mehan and invited the presentation; county officials asked questions about the housing work and legislative advocacy. Mehan said the Kentucky Housing Corporation designation is not new but that KHC has been preparing funding requests to the legislature in recent years. Josh, identified in the meeting as the agency chief financial officer, emphasized partnership work with banks, cities and counties to assemble financing packages and said financial literacy for home buyers will be part of development work.

Mehan closed by noting the agency maintains a local office at the courthouse and provides courthouse hours for client access.

The presentation was informational and no fiscal-court action was taken.