DENVER — On Friday afternoon, community leaders broke ground on a new permanent affordable housing development in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.
Charity’s House Place is a $6.5-million development for individuals experiencing homelessness and for resident with physical, intellectual, and/or developmental disabilities.
“As we worked in transitional housing, and we got people ready for permanent housing, there were not a lot of places for them to go and so we decided that we needed to do permanent housing. We didn't have the money or anything, just had a vision,” Eddie Woolfolk, executive director of the Community Outreach Service Center, the organization behind the project said.
Community Outreach Service Center is an organization founded by Agape Christian Church.
Eddie Woolfolk’s husband, Agape Christian Church Pastor Bob Woolfolk, said the center decided to use the property where their transitional housing is currently located to create the permanent housing that is so needed in the community.
“More and more people are homeless, and more and more people have housing issues,” Bob Woolfolk said.
Bob Woolfolk said it took seven years of planning and working out the details with the City of Denver to break ground on the development.
“A lot of blood, sweat and tears, a lot of being at the table, a lot of asking for help, which is one of my weaknesses,” Eddie Woolfolk said.
Both CVS Health and BlueLine Development answered the Woolfolk’s call for help. Both organizations are providing funding and resources for the new development which will include 36 one-bedroom permanent supportive housing units.
“We're just proud to be able to do it. Proud to be able to reach out as African Americans, as someone from a low-income community to touch other people that are low-income,” Bob Woolfolk said.