COLUMBIA, S.C. (Post and Courier) — A Midlands nonprofit has broken ground on a multi-million-dollar project to redevelop a historic motel into an affordable housing development.
Columbia-based nonprofit Homeless No More held a groundbreaking ceremony at its planned Grand Village housing development on Oct. 13.
The $12.8 million project will see 30 new units built on the site of the former Grand Motel at the corner of Two Notch Road and West Beltline Boulevard.
The new units will house a mix of renters at different income levels, from lower-income families to firefighters and teachers, Homeless No More President and CEO Lila Anna Sauls said.
“What we tell people is no one wants a pocket of poverty, no one wants 200 college kids in one place,” Sauls said. “So we have designed this model so communities welcome it and don't see it as negative.”
A growing need
Several officials at the groundbreaking ceremony tied the project to a growing need for more affordable housing as the city, region and state experience rapid growth.
“Our community is as strong as all of our families, and if we don't have quality, affordable housing for people to be able to live in the communities in which they work, then our community will not be strong,” said state Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, D-Columbia.
Devine called Homeless No More “a model for this entire state” at the groundbreaking.
Homeless No More, a nonprofit that operates a shelter and transitional housing for homeless and at-risk families on Two Notch Road, acquired the motel property and announced the development in 2023.
The project will preserve the the historic sign for the motel, originally built in the 1950s. A large portion of the property has been leveled for new housing units, but a pair of two-story structures in the rear of the plot will be revitalized.
“We know the Grand Hotel was a fixture in Columbia, and we want to make sure Grand Village is the same,” Sauls said.
Diane Wiley, president of the neighboring Belvedere Community Organization, said the project would improve the look of the corner and could bring more business to the community. She said the property looked “rough (and) needed some help.”
“I'm ready for homeless people to have, everybody to have a house,” Wiley added. “They need a house. Rentals are so expensive, and we need this because it could have been me or you, you know. I'm glad, and it'll make this corner look good.”
A community center providing after-school programs and neighborhood event space will also be built. It will be named after the late Jim Christopher, a Homeless No More board member and proponent of the project who died of cancer in 2023.
“He was the first person we said out loud to (that) we wanted to do this, and he believed it,” Sauls said. “He understood that serving families in crisis meant giving them a place to go.”
MacKenzie Scott donation helped with funding
The project has a long list of funders, including the South Carolina Housing Finance and Development Authority, United Way of the Midlands, SC Community Loan Fund, and Richland County, among others.
The combination of newly constructed and rehabilitated existing units allowed the state Housing Finance and Development Authority to pull $11 million in funding from two separate funding programs, officials said.
The Grand Village development was the first local project to be funded through a $10 million donation United Way of the Midlands received from MacKenzie Scott, philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, in 2020, United Way of the Midlands President and CEO Sara Fawcett said.
“I think this is going to be one of the most impactful, if not the most impactful, project that that we were able to put that money to good use for,” Fawcett said. “We know that this project is going to create lasting change, change that is going to benefit families today and our community tomorrow.”
The housing units are expected to take 12 months to complete, with the community center taking another four to six months, Sauls said.
Homeless No More began developing affordable housing for working families in 2015 to complement the organization’s shelter and transitional housing programs.
The nonprofit has already built dozens of housing units along the Two Notch corridor, with more in development there and at a former hotel in Lexington County.