COLUMBIA, S.C. — Transitions Homeless Center purchased land near the Dutch Square Mall to expand its services. The new property will be geared to those in different categories of need, but have the same issue---they need a place to live.
The new property will be an ADA accessible apartment for the elderly and people who are differently abled. Craig Currey is the CEO at Transitions. He said the goal is to shine a light on blind spots in affordable housing.
“And our intention there is to build housing units for single room occupancy for elderly and medically fragile folks," Currey said.
He said this is an issue he's seen in the homeless community.
“We’ve learned in our 11 years of operation, affordable housing is a real issue, the community needs more affordable housing and particularly housing that can take disabled folks.”
According to Homeless No More, a group that records local date, there are 69,000 families that live below the poverty line in Richland County alone. The issue is there are only 5,300 housing units or rental vouchers available through Columbia Housing Authority.
Sam Gale is a Columbia resident who recently experienced homelessness. He said the issue of limited affordable housing is personal.
“It’s really been as difficult as we couldn’t find anything,” Gale said.
The reduced access to affordable housing is what he said caused him and his family to be homeless for more than a year.
“When we finally tried to look and find something else where we could go there was nothing 850 even close it was all at least 1300 1400 for anything around us," he said.
Gale added this expansion for affordable housing in Columbia will give people the opportunity to live comfortably.
“Having housing is everything," Sam said.
The new units will also have an adult day care and will have 11 ground-level rooms to start out with.