A rendering for New Community Shelter's supportive housing project in Green Bay. (Photo credit: New Community Shelter)
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — New Community Shelter broke ground Tuesday on its $14 million supportive housing project.
The development will provide an extra layer for chronically homeless people before going from the shelter to living on their own.
“We’ve got our emergency program, our transitional living program, but we don’t have that final [piece] for people who just aren’t able, after transitional living, to move out into the community,” said Terri Refsguard, CEO of New Community Shelter. “They need more structure.”
More structure is coming in the form of 41 one-bedroom apartment units.
The capital campaign for the project started in September of last year.
“By Christmas, we had raised $12 million,” said Refsguard.
Part of the cost of making this project happen was buying and tearing down seven single-family homes at the corner of Mather and Alma Streets. The cost was about $2 million.
Location was key, as the people who will be living in the building will be able to walk right across the street and take advantage of everything the shelter has to offer.
“The process here and the programming here is to set goals, achieve them and move on back into the community. But for some individuals, they need the structure that we provide for a longer period of time in their own home,” said Katie Prister, program director at New Community Shelter.
Before being able to move into the new building, prospective residents must go through the shelter’s programs, which can take up to 18 months. Refsguard estimates people might live in the apartments for up to two years before being ready to live elsewhere.
“Some people may move on because they want a garden or they want a roommate,” said Refsguard. “A lot of reasons people may move on, but we hope they stay there as long as they can maintain that structure.”
The hope is to have the new building done in less than a year, according to Refsguard. The shelter is still finalizing the cost of rent and other rules that might need to be followed to live in the apartments.
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