Homeless women in Myrtle Beach to get new housing option

The MJW Apartments, an 11-unit complex being built on Mr. Joe White Avenue in Myrtle Beach, will address a need the city has long had -- affordable housing for homeless women.

The vacant buildings just west of The Food Depot, near Carver Street, are being torn down to make way for the new apartments. The foundations still have to be torn out, said Cliff Rudd, the executive director of Home Alliance Inc. and the city’s community development administrator.

He anticipates the teardown will be done in a week, and construction can start just after that. The goal is to have the buildings completed by July 1, and the new residents will be able to move in then.

The apartments will be furnished with “everything they will need to get started,” including pots and pans, linens and furniture, said Nancy Giordano of Home Alliance, Inc., who will manage the MJW units just as she does with Balsam Place, a similar housing complex for men in Myrtle Beach.

First priority residents will be homeless women with disabilities, but there are four units with two bedrooms each, and seven units with one bedroom each, so there will be room for women who have children.

“It’s very exciting,” Giordano said. “I only wish there were more units, because there is a great need in the community.”

While nationally there are typically more homeless men than women -- 75 percent and 25 percent, respectively, Rudd said -- with the down economy, there are more and more families in need of housing.

The $1.7 million project is being funded by Community Development Block Grant money from the city, grants through the Office of Housing and Urban Development’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Home Alliance, Inc., and a home grant through the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments.

Home Alliance, Inc., will own and operate the apartment complex, providing a case manager for the residents to help them begin to rebuild their lives.

“Some might have disabilities, come from abusive situations, have histories of addictions and substance abuse,” Giordano said. “We are now trying to anticipate all the possible needs, but once we begin interviewing potential residents, our assessment might change.”

Home Alliance considers this to be permanent housing for the women who move in, although some will move on because they change their life situations, leave the area or find other living arrangements. The turnover rate at Balsam Place is not high -- about 1 percent -- Giordano said, and she expects a similar situation at MJW.

She and case manager Caryn DePasquale will begin interviewing potential residents soon, she said, though there is no official start date.

Rent in the apartments will cost $499 a month for the one-bedroom units and $598 a month for the two-bedroom units, Rudd said, although most residents will get some form of rental assistance. Giordano said the rental subsidies have not been finalized yet.

Home Alliance Inc. will also provide child care for those who need it, and classes to help the women move forward, such as life skills, budgeting and finances, as well as, perhaps, anger management classes. The group will have programming for the children, too.

“We’re really looking forward to getting started,” Giordano said.

The programming has worked well at Balsam Place, she said, which opened in 2007. It’s a structured living situation in which someone from Home Alliance is always on site as a manager, which helps the residents with a variety of needs, including companionship.

“A lot of them really like to just talk with us. They often don’t have family nearby, and they’ve been on their own for so long, it takes a while for them to learn to trust people again,” Giordano said. “It provides them with a sense of community and safety.”