Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti, center, speaks about the Veteran’s Haven Container Project with Commissioners Anthony Traficanti, left, and David Ditzler, right, at her side with Brandi Parker, Asst. Director of Veteran’s Services, far right, listening. They spoke at the intersection of West Warren Avenue and Hillman Street on Youngstown’s South Side, the future site of a veterans housing project.

YOUNGSTOWN — A $1.2 million, 14-unit project, Veteran’s Haven, to provide temporary housing for homeless veterans should be finished a year from now on the city’s South Side.

The building will be largely made from shipping containers.

“You’ll have no idea it is storage containers when it’s done,” said Matthew Slater, director of development for Family & Community Services Inc., the agency that is developing Veteran’s Haven on the corner of West Warren Avenue and Hillman Street. “It’s faster, greener and less expensive than traditional construction.”

Family & Community Services along with city and Mahoning County officials discussed the project at the site Tuesday.

Family & Community Services received $600,000 in capital funding from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the project with county commissioners giving $150,000 from Mahoning’s American Rescue Plan fund and Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward, giving $100,000 from the city’s ARP allocation.

The agency applied for a $225,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Cincinnati and has launched a fundraising effort for the rest of the money, Slater said.

A groundbreaking event is set for Nov. 13.

The agency purchased the four corner lots on West Warren Avenue and Hillman Street from the city land bank, Slater said.

The $1.2 million, first phase will have the capacity to serve 14 homeless veterans with their own private bedroom and bathroom and be open to veterans of all genders and sexual orientations.

Future plans include adding transitional and permanent supportive housing on the vacant lots, said Brandi Parker, assistant director of veteran services for the agency.

The agency has operated a 10-room temporary housing shelter on Chalmers Avenue in the city for the past two years that has assisted 75 homeless veterans so far this year.

But the opportunity to purchase the parcels on West Warren Avenue and Hillman Street to build a new facility was too good to pass up, Parker said.

“It’s the best space for it, it’s accommodating especially with our new innovative way of providing affordable housing with the container homes,” she said.

County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti, who asked Family & Community Services in 2019 to come to the county to assist homeless veterans, said: “This is going to be perfect for our veterans. This is only the start.”

The new location is on a bus line and less than a mile away from Oakhill Renaissance Place, a county building that houses the county’s Job and Family Services, and the Veterans Service Commission of Mahoning County.

Oliver, who is an Army veteran, said when veterans become homeless “places like Veteran’s Haven are a godsend for us because where else can you go to get that specific type of treatment, that specific type of care you need?”

More than 85% of veterans who have stayed at the Chalmers Avenue location have obtained permanent housing and more than 90% exit the program with either employment or financial benefits, according to Family & Community Services.

Family & Community Services is a social service agency based in Ravenna that covers 28 counties in mostly northeast Ohio with a presence in Pennsylvania and Michigan with more than 70 programs.

dskolnick@vindy.com