COLUMBIA, S.C. — On Thursday the Columbia Planning Commission went over some formalities that Transitions Homeless Center will need to go through for their newest project.
“The annexation of 800 Dutch Square Boulevard to Urban Core Community Activity Center (UCAC-2) and assignment of interim zoning of community activity center/corridor (CAC) from General Commercial (GC)," said the clerk of the commission.
The group wants to open an adult day care center along with apartments to help those struggling with homelessness.
Transitions Homeless Center purchased the property across the street from Dutch Square Mall in August of last year, and their CEO, Craig Currey says they are looking forward to starting construction.
“These buildings have been vacant, two of them have been vacant for years, so we want to get rid of vacant buildings we want to convert them to a usable space that will benefit the community," Currey stated.
The facility will be an adult day center open to anyone and will provide five hours of care for about 24 people each day.
The building will have 22 apartments as well with a focus on ADA-compliant spaces to serve those with disabilities and the elderly.
“We will have people either from Transitions in there or off the streets," said Currey. "When you work with some of these homeless vouchers there’ll be folks who come in there that are homeless but when they get in they’ll no longer be homeless, so we’re very excited about that.”
Work on all of these plans is expected to begin this summer.
“We hope construction will start in late May or June and they’ll work on that through October, November, and shortly after that we hope to start getting people in there," Currey explained.
The next Columbia Planning Commission meeting will be on May 8, at 4 p.m.