Friday morning, May 21st, members of the
Durham community gathered to break ground for the Shirley Strobel
Apartments at the corner of Liberty and Raynor Streets. When
completed, the building will provide twelve attractive, safe and
affordable efficiency apartments for Durham citizens who have serious and
persistent mental illness.
The building is a project of Next
Step Housing, an all-volunteer non-profit organization whose work
is focused on housing for local residents who have mental illness.
The supportive service program that will be
available to residents of the Shirley Strobel Apartments is provided under
the supervision of Threshold Clubhouse.
Primary funding sources for construction are
City of Durham Housing Bonds, the NC Housing Finance Agency and the NC
Mental Health Trust Fund.
Construction is scheduled for completion in
December of this year.
Public officials who attended and spoke at the
ground breaking celebration included Mayor pro tem Cora
Cole-McFadden, City Council member Howard Clement, Chairman
of the Durham Board of County Commissioners Ellen Reckhow
and County Commissioner Becky Heron. Next Step Housing
board member Sam Miglarese gave the invocation.
The apartment building is named in
memory of Shirley Strobel, the founder of Next Step Housing and a
long-time advocate for people who have mental illness in Durham and
statewide. Ms. Strobel died in October, 2001.
