Homeless shelter planned for Delaware veterans
Abandoned nursing home is being developed into a housing center for service members
- The Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans has an agreement to purchase a former nursing home in Wilmington.
- The nonprofit organization is planning a housing center for former service members.
- Plans call for 51 apartments, 10 office spaces and conference rooms for community groups.
A nonprofit group is targeting a long-vacant nursing home in Wilmington to be the state's largest facility dedicated to housing homeless veterans.
The Delaware Center for Homeless Veterans has an agreement to purchase the former Layton Home at 300 Eighth St. in Wilmington. The 48,000-square-foot building will be the first facility in Delaware contracted by the U.S. government to provide subsidized, permanent housing that specifically targets veterans.
"We think it is going to be something great for Wilmington," said David Mosley, founder of the center and a veteran. "We are not worried about filling it. We already have a waiting list of veterans that are precariously housed."
The group started in November 2011 with nine beds in a Haines Avenue building in Wilmington. The organization today has a five-year contract with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs to provide emergency transition housing for 10 veterans to stay up to 90 days in one of two facilities in the city. The organization also houses eight other veterans through fees and grants from various foundations, Mosley said.
Once renovated, the Eighth Street building will feature 51 apartments, conference rooms and 10 office spaces for community groups, Mosley said. The structure is likely to be rebranded as the Pearl, named after Mosley's mother, he said.
Housing for 84 Delaware homeless veterans sought
The seller is Newport real estate firm Pettinaro Co. The four-story building has been empty for more than a decade and has broken and boarded-up windows. The sale price was $1.8 million, and at least another $1.5 million will be spent on renovations, Mosley said. He said the goal is to have people moving in by March 2017.
The Homeless Planning Council of Delaware in a study last year found 102 homeless veterans statewide and 49 in New Castle County. The organization also was part of a statewide effort to solve homelessness among veterans, an effort in response to an initiative launched by President Barack Obama in 2014.
The Wilmington center is the first in Delaware to receive federally funded Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers tied to a specific housing project.
Typically, the income-based housing subsidies are awarded to veterans to use on a permanent basis at private apartments or homes. They also include required case management services provided by Veterans Affairs, said Susan Barton, chief of Care Management and Social Work Services at the Wilmington VA.
Project-based vouchers stay with the housing facility, providing a stream of revenue to fund the building purchase and planned renovations. The vouchers are worth about $260,000 annually.
Mosley said the VA will have a constant presence in the facility for the case management work that goes along with the vouchers.
"When you are going through boot camp and being in the military, you develop a camaraderie," Mosley said. "That is lost when you leave, but when you come to a housing facility like ours with other veterans, you develop that camaraderie again. ... We believe that is the missing piece for veterans that have gone through the experience of homelessness staying housed."
The vouchers are meant to provide permanent housing. Other facilities, like the Home of the Brave in Middletown and Connections Community Support Programs Inc. in Wilmington, provide medium-term transition housing with federal funding.
The State Housing Authority, Downtown Development District and the Timken Foundation also will provide funding through grants or financing, Mosley said. Wilmington city government also is planning to contribute, though it is not clear how much, said Alexandra Coppadge, spokeswoman for Mayor Dennis P. Williams. Mosley said the center will house 40 veterans using the vouchers. The other apartments will be rented at market rate, he said.
"The Delaware Center for Homeless Veteran is a significant organization fighting to end homelessness among our veterans. We will work with the DCHV to find funding to support the new the growth and development of their new home in the city of Wilmington,” Williams said in a statement.
Getting homeless vets off the street
Mosley also said he wants to have a temporary employment center and regular presence from state Department of Labor officials, as well as resources for mental health and other medical needs.
"It could be a really resourceful place," said Broadus Lovett, a Vietnam War veteran who lived in his car for two years before receiving help at DCHV. "As a combat veteran, I didn't know what to ask for. I didn't know government. It could be a really good thing to have [government] there to work with."
Delaware currently receives 147 HUD-VASH vouchers awarded to individual veterans. The project-based vouchers will add 40 to that total, said Fred Purnell, director of the Wilmington Housing Authority, which administers the housing subsidies for the HUD-VASH program.
"If the development is successfully implemented, it will offer more housing choices to homeless vets in the state of Delaware. It is a development project, and there is a lot of work that needs to be done. It is good thing, and we really look forward to working with them," Purnell said.
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.