Now, previously homeless individuals and families have a permanent place to call home, she said.
“This is why we are here, we are here for hope, and I think this place is filled with a whole lot of hope for a lot of people,” said Cathy Ponitz, executive director of the CareSource Foundation, one of the partners in the project.
Hope Strodes, a tenant at Mulberry Terrace, said her new home is a first step in a new life and a life- changing experience. Walking into her own apartment each day, Strodes said it makes her feel ”good, thankful and grateful.”
Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together the group of project partners who helped fund and implement the project, which was first introduced in 2009.
“This has been a very long journey; I’m so grateful for all the partners in this room,” Bradley said Wednesday. “We knew that this was needed and this was a must. And we were able to bring this together, what we are standing in. This is a place that many good people call home.”
Mulberry Terrace also offers supportive services on site for tenants, including an Interfaith case manager who will meet with each tenant on a weekly basis, organizers said. The Rocking Horse Community Health Center will have an office on the first floor of the building to provide physical and behavioral health services, but has yet to move into its unfinished space.
Tenants at the Mulberry Terrace complex pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent and utilities each month. A voucher program run by the Springfield Metropolitan Housing Authority takes care of the rest of the monthly costs.
Guest speakers from project partners CareSource, the City of Springfield, the Corporation for Supportive Housing, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati, Huntington Bank, the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the Rocking Horse Center and the SMHA spoke at Wednesday’s ceremony.
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