Laurel Housing Authority has several projects coming to serve the community
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Contrary to what the name implies, housing is not the only thing the Laurel Housing Authority helps the community with. The organization has several important projects coming up that are expected to have a positive impact on the community, one of which is already complete.
“We just completely renovated the just over 200 Beacon and Triangle public housing units, which are the oldest in the state of Mississippi,” LHA Executive Director Ailrick Young said. “With them being the oldest in the state, we had to check with the Department of History and Archives since they have historical significance in the area.
“An extension of the Beacon Homes is going to be the Laurel/Jones County Welcome Center. Designed by Michael McKinnon, it is about 50 percent complete, and we are hoping for it to be open this summer.”
An upcoming project that is set to begin this year is the renovation of the area around the abandoned Charity Hospital at the north end of 1st Avenue in Laurel. Working with the surrounding neighborhood and the city council, this project is sure to improve the area, Young said.
“This is a massive project, around $40 million,” he said. “We are receiving assistance with this project from the Low Income Housing Credits, which uses tax credits to restore public housing. We are going to be building elderly housing, single-family housing, a park, a nature trail, a bike trail, bringing in a grocery store, other retail businesses and some commercial businesses.
“We are also renovating the old Lamar Schoolhouse and making it look like it did when it was originally built. The school building will be an elderly housing unit, and we will be adding two new buildings to the grounds, which will be single-family units. Along with this, we are working with the city and also directly with Mayor Johnny Magee to try and build at least six emergency housing units. These would be for families who have absolutely nowhere to go and need a place to stay ASAP, in cases such as a house fire and other emergencies.”
Outside of just providing affordable housing to the community, LHA’s mission is to help a wide array of people through a number of different challenges.
“We have several quality-of-life programs that assist people in many different ways, such as helping a person find a job, get a better education or training for a better job, and also helping the elderly to age in place and not have to move around. We want the people of the community to succeed so we want to improve their lives in as many ways as we can.”
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