A transitional housing complex for clients battling drug addiction and mental illness won support Tuesday from a City Council committee.
Up to 32 tenants would live in eight, four-bedroom apartments while they receive treatment, counseling and job training, says SouthLight, the Wake County nonprofit pursuing the project.
The complex, proposed on Garner Road just south of Interstate 40, requires an exception from the city because of its location in Southeast Raleigh.
Since 1978, Raleigh has maintained a scattered-site policy intended to disperse affordable housing across the city rather than allow it to become concentrated in minority and low-income areas.
Tad Clodfelter, CEO of SouthLight, said the 32-bed complex is a special case. The apartments are planned next to the nonprofit’s existing treatment center, allowing for close supervision and easy access to rehab services.
“It’s the kind of housing that is not particularly prevalent in that area,” Clodfelter told the City Council’s budget and economic development committee. “It meets a particular need.”
Clodfelter added: “We’ve been a good, quiet neighbor. We plan to continue to be.”
Clients would stay for six to nine months until they are ready for placement in permanent housing.
SouthLight has asked the city, Wake County and N.C. Housing Finance Agency to each contribute $600,000 in construction financing toward the project.
The city’s portion would come from a bond allocation.
Started in 1970, SouthLight provides substance abuse programs for children, adults and families.
The transitional housing previously won support from Wake County housing and health and human services boards, but the County Commission must also sign off.
City Councilman Thomas Crowder said he typically prefers affordable housing to be added in North Raleigh, where it is most lacking.
But SouthLight’s plan to put housing next to its treatment center make sense, Crowder said.
SouthLight meets regularly with neighborhood leaders in nearby Biltmore Hills, Clodfelter said. The development, which was funded with assistance from Raleigh, not oppose the proposed housing, he said.
