JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new apartment complex, designed to help some of our area’s homeless get into stable housing, will break ground on Thursday.
For about seven years, the Sulzbacher Center has had a goal of opening an affordable apartment complex to help get people out of their shelter and back on track.
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The complex will be built at the corner of 44th St. and Pearl Street. It is a big property with an apartment complex that has so much more to offer to those who will live here.
Sulzbacher Village will be a 70 unit complex, able to accommodate more than 310 people, built for women, single and two parent families, and female veterans. It is something Cindy Funkhouser, the CEO of Sulzbacher Village is very excited about.
“Not just the housing, but we will have programming specific to the needs of female veterans, which as you know are different then the needs of male veterans,” said Funkhouser.
The village will offer more than just housing. There will be a pediatric clinic which will be open to the entire community, including dental, optical, primary care, and behavioral health. There will also be job training and an early learning center, all aimed at providing long term stability.
“When you put a family in permanent housing and then you are able to give them the support they need, we will have case management there and some other support systems with job training and everything else, that's going to enable them to stay housed and to stay stable,” said Funkhouser. She adds, while many are excited about the complex, some in the area haven't been. She says a small group of people living in the area have been a little resistant to the idea. She says they have had meetings and personal visits with them to try to highlight everything the complex will offer.
The hope is once they break ground on Thursday, they will have the center open and people moving in by next year. Funkhouser says there is a management company that will handle the complex and who will be eligible to live at the center.