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New permanent housing for formerly homeless families in KC

Posted at 5:16 PM, Dec 06, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-06 19:11:12-05

On Tuesday, a grand opening event in Kansas City, Mo. celebrated new permanent housing for families who have been homeless.

Dozens of community leaders and members came out to 1101 Admiral Blvd., where the new Rose Hill Townhomes are located.

The $6.7 million project that’s been in the works for the past three years, is a collaboration with the Housing Authority of Kansas City and reStart.

RELATED: New affordable housing coming to Kansas City's east side

“Restart provides temporary and permanent housing for all homeless populations and accompanied youth, families with children, adults and veterans,” reStart President, Evie Craig said. “We're so excited! Our first project this scope, 33 units of permanent housing for homeless families.”

For 26-year-old Melody Blake, who will be one of the new residents, she says she's excited to call this place home.

“For me to be here, it’s huge,” Blake said. “It’s huge.

Two years ago, Blake suffered a stroke.

“I stayed in the hospital for a little while and I lost everything,” Blake said. “I lost my job. Eventually I couldn't work. I lost my house, I lost my car. So me and my daughter, we were just, we were out of luck pretty much.”

Blake says she and her five-year-old daughter were bouncing around from house to house, sometimes living in and out of a car.

“When I lost my job, I lost everything,” she said. “So this place is going to be awesome.”

The complex has a mixture of one, two and three bedrooms.

“We started meeting with the housing authority, so we reached out to our staff and the housing authority staff and began meeting as early as May to put together our guidelines for residents coming in or expectations and then began the process,” Craig said about the selection process.

For Blake, she says it’s a chance for her and her young daughter Nicole, to start over.

“For us to have a place now to call home, to be comfortable, to not have to ask people, 'can we use their bathroom, or can we take showers here, can we stay the night here, it means everything,” Blake said. “It's comfort. It's solitude. It's everything.”

Leaders with reStart say the 33 units will be occupied by residents by the end of this year.

Craig says the project was funded by low income tax credits, home funds from the city and also a grant from Wells Fargo.

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Rae Daniel can be reached at Rae.Daniel@KSHB.com.

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