WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – Wilmington’s City Council met Tuesday night to go over several items like housing within city limits and transportation concerns.
Thousands of dollars now going to a nonprofit to help rehabilitate apartments and a contract with an engineering firm that could change some railroad crossings in the city.
The city will enter a loan agreement with Cape Fear Collective for $698,593. The money is coming from the Community Development Block Grant – Corona Virus, which was meant to go towards permanent supportive housing.
Just before they voted, city leaders heard a presentation from Cape Fear Homeless Continuum of care about the homeless community’s needs and what the city can do to support them. Mayor Bill Saffo says the discussion propelled the council to act swiftly on Driftwood.
“This was an opportunity for us to step up and say ‘this is what we need to do,’” said Saffo. “We’re listening to what our homeless advocates and groups are telling us. We have to have the supportive housing so this was, I think, a no-brainer for all of us to come together and work together.”
The nonprofit agency will rehabilitate the 15 units that make up Driftwood Apartments, working with others like The Good Shephard and Norco Management as they take on the project.
“We do have a contractor ready to go,” said Meghan Dennison, CEO of Cape Fear Collective. We’re hoping for kind of a 60-day rehab project once we can get the work started. We’re really looking for those major system repairs ensuring that Driftwood can be maintained as a permanent supportive housing for 15 units in perpetuity.”
The last topic council discussed on Tuesday was entering into an agreement with an engineering firm to make some changes to the city’s rail system. The Wilmington Rail Realignment Project proposes adding a bridge across the Cape Fear south of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.
Saffo believes it will alleviate traffic in some areas downtown. He’s hoping the engineering firm Hardesty & Hanover will come up with a plan that works.
“Hopefully, the study will show that it can be done and then we can share that information with the North Carolina Department of Transportation so that when they do make a decision as to what they’re going to do with the bridge, we can hopefully attach that rail realignment to the bridge or close to the bridge,” said Saffo.
The council voted unanimously on that item as well. Nothing is set and stone and there’s no clear picture of what that bridge would look like but Saffo says he’s looking forward to what the engineers come up with.
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