MANSFIELD — The Richland County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board broke ground Thursday at 285 Grandview Ave. where a new transitional age youth apartment building will be constructed.
“This has easily been seven years in the making and we’re pretty excited to see it actually come to fruition,” Executive Director Joe Trolian said to a crowd of city and county officials.
The eight-unit apartment complex, designed by Seckel Group Architects, will house youths as they transition out of the foster-care system. During their stay, tenants will learn skills that they may not have gained during their childhood.
“We wanted to be able to come up with a space where we could teach individuals all those transitional age skills that most of us were taught by our parents,” Trolian said.
Officials view the facility as a solution to a long-existing problem in the area.
“For a lot of young people who come out of foster care and don’t have much support, where they often end up unfortunately is homeless. So it’s a known problem, but there are only a few communities in the state that are tackling it like this,” said Doug Bailey, community capital project manager with Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services.
Transitional age is commonly considered between the ages of 18 and 24.
“We’re going to really work to get people more independent and moving on probably by 21,” Trolian said. “No one’s getting kicked out at 21, but the whole idea is to really spend those first two to three years developing.”
Many agencies and organizations are partnering with the mental health and recovery services board to help see that this is a success — one being Richland County Children Services.
“Patty Harrelson (executive director of children services) will be a leading component in providing the individuals who will be living in this facility. So, we’re very excited to work with her to make sure we get the best candidates for these homes to really make sure that we make a difference,” Trolian said.
Harrelson said she’s looking forward to the partnership and seeing the facility up and running.
“This has been a missing piece in our community for a long time,” she said.
Other partners include Catalyst Life Services, the North End Community Improvement Collaborative, Richland County Juvenile Court, among others.
“This is going to be a huge team effort,” Trolian said.
The 6,500 square-foot complex will include eight one-bedroom units.
Tenants will be able to live rent-free for the first 90 days before being expected to pay progressively higher percentages of the rent until they eventually are paying the full market rate.
“This is a very important project because statistics show that all over America a very high percentage of children who had been dependent, neglected or abused end up homeless after five years if they age out and have no place to go and no one to help them,” said Juvenile Court Judge Ron Spon.
The Grandview Avenue property was obtained through the Richland County Land Bank.
“When we started this project, we wanted to make sure that we worked with the land bank and worked with properties that were already available in Richland County because we saw nothing better than taking blighted properties and turning them into something productive for the community,” Trolian said.
The project is estimated to cost around $1 million, which will be paid for by a $500,000 state grant and $500,000 in local funds from the mental health and recovery services board’s capital reserves.
Trolian hopes to have the ribbon cutting ceremony next May.
