Housing Development Alliance, Inc.

Located in the Appalachian Mountains of southeastern Kentucky, the Housing Development Alliance, or HDA, is a nonprofit affordable housing developer serving the housing needs of low-income families and individuals. Our new home construction and home repair projects are completed by our staff carpenters with local subcontractors, and we utilize volunteer labor for several key tasks to help us speed construction. These tasks include building ramps and porches, installing new flooring, roof repair, painting, framing, and roofing. Our organization serves four of the poorest counties in Appalachia and in the nation – Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, and Perry counties in East Kentucky, where persistent poverty has held firm for over 50 years. The programs and services we offer are designed to help low-income people become more financially stable and build wealth by having new and better homes they can afford.

Our History

The idea that became the Housing Development Alliance began in the minds of a group of devout eastern Kentucky women on a mission to help their community. With the help of a grant, they started a local food bank and formed an organization called Hazard-Perry County Community Ministries.

As the organization grew, so did the number of programs. These amazing women found a way to fund a daycare program, a homeless shelter, and a Crisis Aid Program. In the 1990s, Gerry Roll was hired as the director of Hazard-Perry County Community Ministries, and she, along with Jennifer Weeber, the director of Community Programs at Community Ministries, discovered that housing issues were a leading cause of financial distress for mountain families seeking help from the Crisis Aid Program. The two women learned that HUD’s newly-created HOME Program had a Set-Aside Program for community-based groups, so they formed a board of directors and on September 8, 1993 the Housing Development Alliance (HDA) was born.

In 1994 Scott McReynolds was hired as HDA’s Executive Director, and since then, HDA has grown into a multi-faceted and highly respected nonprofit organization. Driven by a strong desire to improve our community, HDA has met the housing needs of over 2,900 people, building over 340 affordable new homes and completing over 900 home repairs, while providing a much-needed economic boost to the local economy.

Our Mission

To use the power of housing to transform lives and build a brighter future for our community.

Our Values

We believe every Appalachian East Kentucky family deserves to have a home they can afford.

What We Do

We work with low-income families in the eastern Kentucky counties of Breathitt, Knott, Leslie, and Perry, which are 4 of the poorest counties in the nation, to help them improve the home they have or realize their dreams of owning a new affordable home. Families who qualify for our program are not given homes. Instead, we work with multiple organizations at the local, state, and federal level, as well as in the private sector to help these families break down barriers and gain the financial stability they need in order to own and maintain a home.

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