SALISBURY — In February, the members of the Salisbury City Council voted to work with Rowan Helping Ministries in building 10 permanent supportive housing units at the corner of East Council and North Shaver streets. Now, the city, county and non-profit have moved one step closer after a finding of no significant impact on the environment was issued earlier this month, a necessary step in the utilization of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding.

The project will be utilizing multiple avenues from HUD’s Home Investment Partnership Program, including approximately $490,000 from Salisbury, approximately $740,000 from Rowan County and approximately $1.6 million from the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency through the Supportive Housing American Rescue Plan Program.

Those funds, along with funding from RHM itself, will combine to help build the First Horizons Neighborhood on the non-profit’s campus. The neighborhood, which will include five duplexes that can house eight individuals and two families, has been in the works since at least fall of 2022, when First Horizons Bank provided over $200,000 in seed money for the project and Pete Bogle began working on the project as the architect.

The project will not be transitional housing, but for individuals seeking steady care with no timeline on when they have to move out. RHM already operates three permanent supportive housing properties and have had people live there until they died.

The neighborhood will be located on the edge of RHM’s campus, at the corner of East Council and North Shaver streets.

As part of the finding of no significant impact, which states that the project will have no adverse effects on the “human environment,” the county notes that the project will consist of five one-story duplexes and will include an outdoor green space with a gazebo, tenant parking adjacent to the buildings, solar panels on the duplexes and other measures aimed at increasing energy savings.

Any individual, group or agency that disagrees with the finding or who wishes to comment on the project can submit public comment to Rowan County Grants Administration & Governmental Relations at 130 W. Innes Street, Salisbury, NC 28144 or via mail at www.rowancountync.gov/PublicComment, or to the City of Salisbury Planning and Neighborhoods Department at 132 N. Main Street, Salisbury, NC 28144 or via email at plan@salisburync.gov. 

Comments must be submitted by Dec. 31 to be considered by the county and city prior to the submission of the request for release of the HUD funding. That request will be submitted on Jan. 8, according to the notice.