KANNAPOLIS — The Kannapolis City Council voted to approve a grant amendment totaling $3 million at its Dec. 11 meeting that will be given to the nonprofit Cooperative Christian Ministry to assist in the purchase of Caremoor Retirement Community located on Kannapolis Parkway. 

CCM Chief Relationship Officer Jeremy Burleson said, “No current residents are being displaced and Caremoor will continue to accept new residents for the foreseeable future.”

City Manager Mike Legg added that homelessness and transitional housing have been a “top issue” for city council over the past few years. The money will be used by CCM to further develop their transitional housing program. The new facility will go by Grace Place at Caremoor.

CCM has been around since 1981 and Chief Executive Officer Ed Hosack said at the meeting, “In 2023, we are experiencing the highest demand for crisis services in our history.” 

According to a press release released by CCM, its main objective is “to meet members of our community where they are, address their current crisis, and empower them to move from crisis to restoration.”

They achieve that by combating hunger and food insecurity, providing financial assistance to individuals and families and dealing directly with the homelessness and housing problems that the country is facing. 

The property in question is going to be for “individuals, families, and senior citizens” living in Cabarrus County and Kannapolis who are experiencing a housing crisis or are on the cusp of being homeless. The facility will offer programs “to educate, stabilize and empower the household to achieve personal goals and housing stability.”

The current Caremoor complex consists of four buildings on a little more than five acres of land. Grace Place can potentially serve 62-75 people and that figure could increase as time goes on.

The $3 million is not a loan and CCM will not be responsible to pay it back as long as it adjusts 75 percent of the current spaces in the facility to transitional housing units within five years; allocates space for “15 families with children” within five years; are in operation for at least 10 years; enters into a contract with future residents “to address behavioral issues and manage the progress towards personal goals;” if it is no longer in business within 10 years they will have to pay back the money based on a sliding scale. Meaning, if CCM is no longer operating the facility after nine years, they will pay Kannapolis $300,000; if CCM sells the property within 10 years, the property must still be used for transitional housing purposes for the remainder of the agreement term. 

Legg said the money is a component to Kannapolis’ six-year financial plan as part of its Imagine Kannapolis Strategic Plan. The funds come from a $9.3-million grant the city acquired from the Federal American Rescue Plan Act in 2022. 

The total purchase price is $5.25 million. The rest of the funds will come from a $250,000 donation and $2 million promissory note from former council member and Caremoor owner and previous City Councilor Tom Kincaid. Grace Place is under the umbrella of CCM’s $19 million capital campaign that includes The Rebuilders Campus at Brown Mill Commons in Concord, where they will renovate the Brown Mill property into another transitional housing space.

Council Member Dianne Berry has come out and said that she did not support the project due to Kincaid’s involvement with the deal. While Berry believes both Caremoor and CCM have a “proven reputation,” she did have questions about the “remote location” and potential “transportation challenges.” Kincaid ended up resigning from his position on the council so that the $3 million could be moved and the deal finalized.

“I went with my gut instinct and chose not to support this project because of the potential conflict of interest involving a seated council member. Elected officials are required to take hours of ethics training after every re-election to prepare them for situations just like this one. I felt I needed to look long and hard at all the facts I had in front of me and make an ethical choice. My reaction would have been the same had it been any of our other council members,” Berry said.

Hosack said that it will take a year before CCM can start accepting families into Grace Place.