Groundbreaking ceremony held for Benham Avenue Apartments

ELKHART, Ind. -- A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday morning for a supportive housing project for the homeless in Elkhart County.

The ceremony for Benham Avenue Apartments began at 10:30 a.m. on July 8 at the property located at 2745 Benham Ave. in Elkhart, Indiana.

Lacasa, Inc., a community housing development organization, hosted the ceremony with representatives from several organizations and companies contributing to the project including Elkhart Mayor Tim Neese, AMBS VP/Academic Dean Beverly Lapp, Brad Yoder of R. Yoder Construction, IHCDA Deputy Executive Director/Chief Real Estate Development Officer Matt Rayburn, Chief Clinical Officer Bonita Schrock and President/CEO Laurie Nafziger of Oaklawn.

“There’s various reasons for homelessness and why people experience that but one of the realities here is that there’s such a housing shortage that sometimes the most vulnerable end up without any housing at all so anytime you’re adding units, that’s a good thing," Chris Kingsley, President and Ceo of Lacasa, Inc. said.

Construction on the low-income units, funded by IHCDA through the HOME program, will feature apartments for the chronically homeless approximately one mile from Oaklawn’s campus location on Oakland Avenue in Elkhart, Indiana and will be within walking distance of many services nearby for tenants.

Benham Avenue Apartments will be energy-efficient with special attention given to HVAC systems and the “exterior envelope” through Nappanee’s R.Yoder Construction.

The project, expected to be completed in the spring of 2020, will offer 11 one-bedroom apartments with a laundry and community room and each apartment offers 550 square feet of living space.