The governor calls it the biggest housing announcement in the history of the state.

Kentucky will invest more than $223 million to build more than 950 affordable rental units in four counties affected by the 2021 tornadoes and other severe weather.

The money is from the Kentucky Housing Corporation and Kentucky's disaster recovery program.

The money will go to build apartment complexes for moderate to low income Kentuckians.

Governor Andy Beshear says in the past, people who live in rental units haven't received the help they need.

Kentucky, through the Department of Local Government using VR funding in case they are investing $223 million to build 953 affordable rental housing units across four counties.

All four of these counties were hit in various degrees by the tornadoes.

These housing units are going into Christian Graves Hopkins and Warren Counties.

And these counties were also some of them hit with the storms just this last week that took the lives of five Kentuckians.

And we mourn for them as well.

I believe we have now arranged for payments of the funerals for each of those that were lost because every loss, whether it was back in 2021 or these most recent storms, impact those families.

Just as severely.

In total, we're building 76 rental units in Hopkinsville.

We're building 122 rental units in Mayfield, 88 units in Dawson Springs, 32 units in Madisonville, and 635 units in the city of Bowling Green.

This is a historic funding announcement for many reasons.

It supports disaster recovery and growth and job growth.

It supports an increase in affordable housing for Western Kentucky, and it addresses the housing shortage that exist in the region and in the state as a whole.

This announcement is unprecedented.

It's the first time for KBC that several things have occurred.

As the governor has indicated, this is the well, a project that is funded by for the construction of more housing units than we've ever financed in a single housing application round.

953 I think total.

That's an historic occasion for us to be able to do that.

This tornado struck in the heart of our community, to the heart of our people who are the most vulnerable.

At some points it was those people who lived in these subpar rental homes that are now still struggling.

And this piece today, this multifamily 122 units that will be coming to our hometown, to house our people is just heartwarming.

I've used heartwarming so much, I don't know that I've probably just worn the gilding off of it, but there is nothing else to say about that.

The state says construction will begin no later than spring of next year.

Eligible Kentuckians will be able to apply to lease the new apartments.