Interfaith in talks to purchase 14-unit complex for permanent support housing

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Posted November 19, 2021 | By James Blevins
james@ocalagazette.com

With cold weather patterns slowly creeping in the last few weeks, Marion County’s many homeless citizens are in desperate need of housing.

Ocala’s Interfaith Emergency Services is working diligently to help alleviate that issue one bed at a time before winter sets in.

Currently in talks to purchase a 14-unit building from Arnette House, Inc., Interfaith is hoping to establish a newly planned Permanent Support Housing (PSH) complex off N.E. 14^th St. in Ocala.

The contract between the two nonprofits has at this time established a closing date of Dec. 31 or sooner for the sale.

CEO of Interfaith Karla Greenway said the PSH program provides staff on site to help individuals that can’t effectively live on their own.

“They’re capable of self-care,” she clarified. “They’re capable of some basic things, but they’re just not capable of maintaining stable housing, not without a lot of support.”

Along with on-site case management, the program also features wrap-around services such as trauma counseling, while targeting to help people that are intellectually disabled or suffer from mental health issues.

The complex on N.E. 14^th St. will be multi-use for the first couple of years due to some low-income families still living in the complex prior to Interfaith’s planned purchase.

“There’s not really any other low-income housing available; if we displaced them, then we would just add to the homeless situation,” explained Greenway. “So, we’re letting the families that are currently leasing remain.”

According to Greenway, the Public Policy Institute of Marion County determined in 2019 that Marion County needed over 200 PSH beds in the community to address the need for the chronically homeless.

“We’re still woefully low,” she admitted. “And there’s still a huge need. But we’re just excited that some of the individuals that we’ve been seeing for at least a decade that have been homeless are going to finally be housed. It’s exciting that we’re making a little bit of an impact in that arena.”

Arnette House, a charitable nonprofit that offers emergency shelter services and family counseling to at-risk youth, first obtained the building to run a program for local youth aging out of foster care in 2007.

That original program hasn’t been in operation since 2010, according to CEO of Arnette House Cheri Pettitt.

“It wasn’t that we had to [sell the 14-unit complex],” said Pettitt. “It just wasn’t any longer a part of the mission of Arnette House. So, when Interfaith came along and were interested in placing homeless folks in there, we thought that’d be a pretty good transition.”

Because the building was originally purchased by the county using federal dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), sale of the building from Arnette House to Interfaith is contingent on the approval of the Marion County Board of County Commissioners (MCBOCC), who manages the lien on the property.

The sale is scheduled to go before the MCBOCC on Dec. 7.

“I really hope they approve,” said Greenway. “I really want to get this done. My hope was that we would have them in by Thanksgiving, but that very quickly changed. But I’m still hopeful, hoping that we can at least get them in off the streets before Christmas.”

The unit was appraised at $1.2 million. Interfaith agreed to put up another $100,000, making payments to Arnette House interest-free for the next three years.

“Because honestly,” explained Greenway, “we were up against for-profit developers. Arnette House could have made a profit; they could have made a really nice profit, but their board, being mindful of the needs of our community, agreed to sell it to us, knowing what we were going to do with it. That’s why our board felt like the fair thing to do would be to give them a little over the appraised value since they very easily could have made more than that. We wanted to be fair.”

Pettitt agreed with Greenway’s assessment of the deal.

“We could have sold it on the open market…as I’m sure you’re aware of what real estate prices are right now…but we felt like it would be much better for our community if we were to transition it over to Interfaith, and we were glad to do it,” she said.

Greenway admitted that the two nonprofits might have slightly different missions, but they both have a similar goal: to improve the lives of each member of the community who needs the help they offer.

“They take care of the kids before they’re adults,” said Greenway, “and we tend to take care of them after.”

For now, Greenway said she is patiently waiting for closing day.

“On the day that we get the keys for the apartment complex, we’re going to throw together a party and just have a little block party there at the complex,” informed Greenway. “It’ll be wonderful.”