A vote to approve money for a permanent supportive housing project in South Bend was delayed Thursday night.
In March, the City approved $1.5 million for a homeless gateway center - but the project was dropped this Fall. Now there is talk about shifting $1 million of that money to renovate one of the Gemini Apartment buildings on Colfax Avenue.
Up to six of those units would be used as permanent supportive housing for the homeless, according to City officials.
Oliver Davis is the 6th district South Bend common council member. He said the city didn’t give neighborhood residents enough notice of the change in plans.
“If this had been any other developer who had done this, we would have shot it down quickly. It just happens to be the City of South Bend and they should have known better.”
Pam Meyer is the Director of Neighborhood Development. She said the City already approved funding to do similar renovations on a Washington Street building.
“This would be a second phase to do that same kind of improvement on the other building. It just so happens that this building would also be committed by South Bend Heritage to include up to six of their units as permanent supportive housing for the homeless.”
The commission decided to delay the vote until December 12th.
Contact Annacaroline at acaruso@wvpe.org or follow her on Twitter at @AnnacarolineC16
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