LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness held a public input meeting Tuesday to gather community feedback on draft recommendations aimed at addressing the city's growing crisis of unsheltered residents.

The task force, convened by Mayor Linda Gorton in response to a June 2025 emergency shelter study, has spent eight months developing strategies to overhaul how Lexington serves its homeless population. The task force was created after the 2024 point-in-time count revealed a 100-person increase in homelessness, and subsequent counts showed continued growth.

A central recommendation involves maintaining and eventually replacing the temporary seasonal shelter currently operating at 1306 Versailles Road, the former Farrell's building. The plan calls for shared space with public safety presence to provide security and health response, along with a neighborhood agreement involving law enforcement, the shelter operator and surrounding businesses and residents.

The most significant shift would target the facility toward "low-impact" populations — seniors and families with children — rather than the current general population of single adult men and women. Task force members emphasized that families experiencing homelessness have risen from nearly 20% in 2024 to 25% in 2025, representing a population the city's current system is not equipped to serve.

The task force plans to issue a request for proposals seeking organizations to develop and operate the permanent facility, with expectations that outside partners would fund roughly 40% of construction costs. Task force members noted that similar arrangements in other cities have successfully leveraged public land to attract private and nonprofit investment.

Other recommendations include establishing a centralized triage center and comprehensive entry process to help residents access appropriate services. Task force co-chair Charlie Lanter noted the current system's complexity, saying officials cannot easily answer where someone should go if they become homeless in Lexington because the answer depends on numerous factors including gender, family status and whether they have pets.

The meeting reflected growing urgency around homelessness in Lexington. The 2025 Emergency Homeless Shelter Study, conducted by EHI Consultants, projected the city needs roughly 500 additional beds within the next four to five years to adequately serve its population.

Mayor Gorton emphasized the need for preventive approaches. "We need to quit pulling people out of the river and we need to walk upstream and find out why they're falling in," she said, referring to addressing root causes of homelessness rather than only responding to crises.