Columbia’s mayor is praising the recent groundbreaking ceremony for new transitional housing on East Ash. Mayor Barbara Buffaloe spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony, telling 939 the Eagle News that it’s inspirational for those who want to be at the table to find solutions:
“Which was both an example of this perfect sort of public, private, faith-based communities, non-profits coming together for solutions to some of our housing problems that we have,” Mayor Buffaloe says.
The city of Columbia awarded $600,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars to Love Columbia for transitional housing. Boone County awarded the project $1-milllion in federal ARPA dollars. Mayor Buffaloe references the faith-based community. The congregation at Columbia’s Crossing church took up a special Easter offering that will allow the new facility to expand from six to ten units.
Love Columbia started its transitional housing program in 2015 and says more than 70 families with children have reset their lives and secured permanent housing since then. Love Columbia says those families receive intensive financial, housing and career coaching, when they’re in transitional housing. Mayor Buffaloe tells 939 the Eagle that she’s impressed:
“This is something that you see in a successful program. It’s understanding that in order to really help, you have to provide those wraparound services,” Buffaloe says.
The mayor also tells the Eagle that the new Opportunity campus homeless shelter that will be built on Columbia’s Business Loop will be more than just a homeless shelter. She says it will have those wraparound services to help those in crisis.
