Southpoint Place Apartments
Community Housing Network, Inc. developed a vacant site on Southpoint Boulevard with permanent supportive rental apartments for people disabled by mental illness, chemical dependence, or histories of homelessness. A new building with 40 studio apartments and a new apartment complex with 40 units for families and a community building. CHN is managing the units, providing direct services and service links to the tenants.
The 40-unit building with fully finished efficiency apartments for individuals includes tenant amenities such as a fitness room computer learning center, staff offices, tenant and service provider meeting space, a common kitchen, laundry areas, and a controlled entrance and reception area. The other 40 units are townhouses designed for families with two, three and four-bedroom units. These units are arranged around a large green space that includes bsketball court and playgroup equipment. A community building for the families is also provided that includes large and small meeting rooms, a kitchen, a literacy room, a computer learning center, laundry room with a play room across the hall visible to parents, and offices for staff and/or meetings with community-based service agencies.
Southpoint Apartments offers tenants supportive services to enable them to find work, maintain their treatment and recovery, and eventually give back to the community. This supportive housing environment also provides peer support and a sense of community, both of which are often lacking in the lives of the formerly homeless and people with a disability.
CHN and its partners, Amethyst, Inc. and Concord Counseling Services, provides 24-hour staffing and on-site supportive services, including links to case management and counseling, as well as individual and group activities designed to address the needs of individuals, families and children and to strengthen the tenant community. An Employment Specialiast connects tenants to pre-employment services and vocational opportunities.
CHN entered into a Good Neighbor Agreement very early in the development process with community representatives. The Agreement defines community standards and expectations for development and operations of Southpoint Apartments to assure the housing success for both tenants and the neighborhood. A Community Advisory Council was formed and has met regularly for over a year to guide all project development and continues to meet every other month.
CHN assembled financing from federal, state and local sources: City of Columbus, Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, Franklin County Board of Commissioners, Greenlawn Companies, KeyBank, Huntington National Bank, Ohio Capital Corproation for Housing, Ohio Housing Finance Agency, The Affordable Housing Trust for Columbus and Franklin County, The Columbus Foundation and United Way of Central Ohio Anonymous donor. For services and operations funding, CHN was awarded US Department of Housing and Urban Development funds and rent subsidies from Columbus Metropolitan Housing Authority and the Community Shelter Board and ADAMH Board have made awards. ADAMH Board provider agencies provide services.
