The complex will be called The Sparrow, and it’s located on the former site of a City of Wilmington firehouse at 3939 Carolina Beach Road.
Good Shepherd Center Executive Director Katrina Knight couldn’t contain her excitement as she thanked major donors like the SECU Foundation, the city of Wilmington, and The North Carolina Housing Finance Agency. “We're so grateful to you, and hope you'll agree that today is a really good start to all that that effort will accomplish for the unhoused of our community,” she said.
The three-story building has 32 apartments — which will be home to 32 chronically homeless individuals, with wraparound services to help them stay healthy and stay housed. Mayor Bill Saffo spoke on behalf of the city, which donated both the land and millions of dollars to support the development.
He mentioned a homeless woman he knew from his walks around Empie Park, who he then found living at Good Shepherd’s other Permanent Supportive Housing Development, Lakeside Reserve.
"Just to see this woman in the dignified place where she could live and reside was all she needed to say," Saffo said.
He mentioned that the first PSH project from Good Shepherd was a fight because residents worried about impacts.
"And we've never had one issue out of Lakeside Reserve, and the community's embraced it and it gave us the opportunity to do this project here," he said. “Katrina has always reiterated that into my ear: if you want to solve the problem we need the supportive housing and we need the wraparound services for these people that are most vulnerable.”
How do you eat an elephant, he asked? "One bite at a time.”
There are an estimated 165 chronically homeless individuals in the tri-county area, according to the latest Point in Time Count. Taking 32 of them off the streets and into permanent housing: officials think that’s a pretty big bite.
