Durham Opens An Apartment Building For Homeless Veterans
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| One of the many challenges facing veterans in modern American society is finding safe and affordable housing. Because of this difficulty, combined with prevalent rates of mental, emotional and physical trauma, many returning servicemen and women have found themselves living on the streets or bouncing from shelter to shelter. Fortunately, a number of organizations in Durham, North Carolina have taken steps to lessen this problem by building an apartment building specifically for veterans in the area.Called the Denson Apartments for Veterans, the building is named after Alex Denson, a retired federal judge and the first board chairman of CASA, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing affordable housing that helped organize the project. In total, CASA has 65 units designated for veteran accomodation in the Triangle Region, which stretches from Raleigh to Durham and Chapel Hill. The Denson Apartments make up 11 of those units and are already being filled by homeless veterans.
The construction of the apartment building was supported by the City of Durham, the Federal Department of Housing, and a number of other local agencies. Several other companies and community groups have taken responsibility for the building’s continued landscaping and management. However, without an assigned manager to attend to the various needs of the building, ranging from maintenance to the building’s tax status as a nonprofit venture, the project could quickly go awry. “In a complex like this with a pretty diverse community of individuals with specific needs, a property management company with experience in dealing with lower income individuals is a necessity. It’s advantageous to make a community like this run successfully, and a property management firm is certainly helpful,” says Joe Ord, President of Amoso Properties. Another apartment building with 12 units for veteran use is currently planned for the lot beside the Denson Apartments. Construction is expected to begin soon. |
