Wilmington City Council approves homeless help and housing

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) —  Wilmington City Council met Tuesday night and unanimously approved an ordinance to appropriate more than two million dollars in American Rescue Plan Funds to help the homeless.

City council also heard from Wilmington housing director Tyrone Garrett on a number of housing projects being worked on.

The council was asked to vote tonight to fund the housing authority by about 660-thousand dollars… To support phase two of the Jervay Place revitalization effort. The property experienced significant damage from hurricane Florence and the housing authority plans to use federal money to improve the property.

The Jervay Place project goes alongside work on Hillcrest, Houston Moore, and Solomon Towers.

“I don’t know any other housing authority in the state of North Carolina right now with four redevelopment projects all moving at the same time.” says Tyrone Garrett. “And these redevelopment projects do take time. It takes time to find a development partner; it takes time to find private equity to put into it; it takes time to develop the site plans and submit. And let’s not forget: we’re not on our own timelines; we’re on the timeline of the state when we submit for tax credits. If it were up to me, we would’ve submitted or garnered private money or private equity in another manner to build the units, but we’ll follow the timelines with the state to be prepared to submit our applications.”

Council unanimously approved the 660-thousand dollars to help fund the Jervay Place project.