Mixed-use development offers those struggling with housing home for the holidays
It was a lot of hoopla for a little girl’s bedroom.
Eight-year-old O’Nor led a gaggle of grown-ups through the new house on Thursday, marveling at the softness of the bedroom carpet and playing peekaboo through the doors of the laundry hamper.
She’s excited to move into one of the seven units that just opened at Waites Way, the new attainable housing community built by Homeless No More. It will be her first real big-girl bedroom after previously living in a shelter with her father.
“I’m very excited to spend a lot of time with my daddy, where we can watch movies and play and spend the holidays together,” O’Nor told those gathered to inaugurate the new development.
A townhome-style development on Waites Road off Two Notch Road, Waites Way is the latest to be opened by Homeless No More, a nonprofit that works to move unhoused populations into new accommodations. The homes were opened in a ceremony on Thursday, with some of the new residents slated to move in that same day.
It was the culmination of three years of work securing a little less than an acre of land near Homeless No More’s St. Lawrence Place transitional housing, then building the homes with $2.5 million in federal funding secured through S.C. Housing and $50,000 from financial partner Truist.
The new space offers mixed-income housing in two- or three-bedroom units between 1,100 and 1,500 square feet. The rent will vary based on the median income for each unit, ranging from $299 to $900. The nonprofit said every unit will be filled by the end of the month.
Available on a first-come, first-served basis, Homeless No More CEO Lila Anna Sauls said the hope is that people who have struggled for housing will find security living next door to a teacher or a firefighter.
“We’re dedicated to developing housing that’s right for families in our community,” Sauls said. “It has a small footprint, it looks nice, and the community was involved in the planning, which is the only way this is going to work.”
Homeless No More has been working to expand its housing offerings to people in recent years. Earlier this year, the organization moved into an old hotel off Bush River Road near Interstate 20, which is being converted into a 31-unit St. Andrews Village to provide transitional housing for those in need in Lexington County.
Sauls said that project is moving forward with design and funding for rehab work to turn the former roadside hotel into space for an on-site grocery store, a childcare center and life skill classes. Homeless No More also had plans approved for another 20 housing units in a new Edgewood Village near their headquarters further up Two Notch.
That mission is important because of what it represents for the people who need housing assistance the most, said Columbia City Councilman Tyler Bailey, one of several government officials who attended the Waites Way’s opening day.
“Home is a place to go after a tough day, a place where kids feel safe,” Bailey said. “Now these seven blessed people will be able to move in before the holidays.”
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