FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — New Beginnings, a bridge housing community, is requesting nearly $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan funds from the City of Fayetteville to go toward permanent supportive housing.
Solomon Burchfield, executive director of New Beginnings, said the area is in an affordable housing crisis. He said very few people have been able to move out of New Beginnings into permanent housing because they face many barriers.
“That’s what precipitated this proposal is how can we create housing opportunities that are low barrier so that people who are working on their credit history or criminal background issues can be approved for the unit and affordable for people that are often on disability level income,” Burchfield said.
Rodney Christian is one of those people having trouble finding a permanent place to live. He’s been living at New Beginnings for about the past year and a half.
“I’ve been turned down several times, it gets frustrating,” Christian said. “Just makes me sometimes want to give up but give up and go back to where there’s nowhere else to go back to.”
The ARPA funds would go toward housing that serves those with disabilities and people facing chronic homelessness.
Burchfield, Christain, and others showed their support for the proposal at Tuesday’s Fayetteville City Council meeting. Some council members had concerns about the proposal because of the cost-benefit analysis and federal regulations surrounding American Rescue Plan funds. The housing would support about six to eight people at a time.
Council member Teresa Turk proposed lowering the proposal to under one million to better align with ARPA guidelines.
“We need to be very careful so that we comply with those. I’m concerned we would not meet the cost-benefit calculation under ARPA,” Turk said.
The city council decided on Tuesday to table the decision and it will be reconsidered on April 18.
Burchfield and Christian say they’ll keep advocating.
“I will just say just give us a fair shot to have affordable housing,” Christian said.
