Louisville addiction treatment center plans 5-story West End affordable housing complex
An addiction treatment group in Louisville broke ground Wednesday on an affordable housing complex that plans to offer additional services for the city's underserved population.
Aileen Bryant-Wales, the president of Ladies of Promise, said the planned five-story facility – called the Main Street Project, in Louisville's Portland neighborhood – will contain 52 units of income-based quality housing. Counseling will also be available on site once it's open, according to a release from Gov. Andy Beshear's office, along with a daycare, a community kitchen and other services.
Bryant-Wales said additional community needs should be made available as well, including a computer lab, library, GED and parenting programs and with laundry facilities. CEO Catherine Stone-Hahn said organizers are hoping to partner with local colleges and trade schools for online learning, too.
The complex is a ways away from welcoming tenants, with an expected opening date of December 2023. But the new center at Main and 22nd streets will be located next to Ladies of Promise's current facility at Market and 22nd streets, with a planned skybridge connecting the two venues.
The new facility will help fill and important role in the recovery process, Bryant-Wales said. Once patients complete the program, she said, it's important that they have a place to go – otherwise, she said, it's easier to succumb to addiction again.
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It'll be the product of a former Ladies of Promise patient as well. General contractor Alisia Richardson is a survivor of addiction who once used the group's services.
While Richardson was a Ladies of Promise patient, she said, she told Bryant-Wales that when she had completed the program, she wanted to "talk business." Bryant-Wales told her to graduate first, Richardson said, but the two sides could discuss it in the future.
That time has come. They're only in the beginning stages of development, Bryant-Wales said, but she said they have an architect, design and general contractor working on the project.
Of course, the development won't be cheap. Richardson said officials behind the Main Street Project estimate the total cost will rise to about $15 million. The group is working with "community partners" to help fund it, she said. She did not name those groups or individuals that are contributing.
Beshear attended the event as well, noting Louisville's West End has faced generations of setbacks due to segregation and redlining. The governor said he "can't wait to see the first person to get a college degree with help from the Main Street Project," and the new planned development is "our chance to make sure that this community is included in the prosperity to come."
Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at emccrary@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter @ellie_mccrary.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Ladies of Promise Louisville plans new affordable housing center
