Phoenix Pass – Conyers, GA

CONYERS, GA – April 15, 2010 – On April 14, HomeAid Atlanta and Phoenix Pass dedicated a newly constructed apartment building and community center on the campus of Light House Village in Conyers. The complex will be operated by Phoenix Pass, a nonprofit organization, to provide long-term transitional housing for families, particularly women with children, who are experiencing temporary homelessness in the Conyers/Rockdale County community. Held at the site of the complex, the ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony was a celebration of the completion of construction on the apartment building, which will provide the first transitional housing in Rockdale County.

More than 130 people attended the ceremony, with speakers including Jeff Beech, chairman of Light House Village; Mimi Box, Executive Director of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation; former Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin, co-chair of the Regional Commission on Homelessness; Dr. Jeff Meyers, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Conyers; Dan O’Dwyer, president of HomeAid Atlanta; Georgia State Senator Ronald Ramsey, Sr.; and Ron Simpson, president of Phoenix Pass, as well as many of the partners that contributed to the project. The ceremony was emceed by John Pruitt, anchorman for WSB-TV.

Construction began on the Conyers complex last October, led by HomeAid Atlanta, a nonprofit organization that helps homeless service providers, like Phoenix Pass, complete transitional housing construction through donations of labor and materials from members of the local homebuilding industry. Conyers-based builders Manor Homes and Horizon Home Builders served as HomeAid’s builder captains for the project, helping to coordinate and manage the construction process, in addition to securing in-kind donations of labor and materials from more than 50 trade partners in partnership with HomeAid Atlanta. During the dedication ceremony, the participating trade partners were honored for their generous contributions to the project.

“The Phoenix Pass complex fills a critical gap in the housing continuum for the Rockdale County community, providing new housing opportunities that have never before been available to local families in need,” said Ann Carey, executive director of HomeAid Atlanta. “The complex will be an asset to the community for many years to come, and we thank everyone who participated in this project to make it a success.”

In addition to support from members of the homebuilding industry, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation provided HomeAid Atlanta with a generous grant for the Phoenix Pass project, which provided critical gap funding needed for construction. Founded in 2006, The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing about positive change and helping the lives of those in need One Soul at a Time. Through the funding and creation of programs and partnerships, the Foundation supports innovative community efforts to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness.

“In today’s economy, strategic partnerships are critical to maximizing available resources in a community. It was HomeAid’s unique model of building partnerships that originally captured our attention,” said Mimi Box, Executive Director of the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation. “HomeAid builds partnerships to create cost-effective solutions to a community’s housing needs. This story has even greater potency when you consider today’s economy. Still, we have home builders stepping up to give back to those in greater need in their community.”

The apartment building at Phoenix Pass is EarthCraft-certified, meeting the guidelines of the EarthCraft House green building program. Each single-family apartment unit features a kitchen, living room, two bedrooms and a private bathroom. The lighthouse community center, designed as a resource and opportunity development center for program participants, includes an activity room, meeting room, laundry room, storage area, four restrooms, two kitchenettes and a staff office. A second apartment building, which is also planned to be EarthCraft-certified, is scheduled to be constructed in a future phase.

The Phoenix Pass program is designed to serve the needs of families experiencing temporary homelessness by giving them an opportunity to reestablish self-sufficiency in a residential setting. The focus of the program is to empower these families with supportive services and the resources to recover and rebuild a productive, stable lifestyle for themselves and their family. The complex will provide families with housing for up to two years along with curriculum/community-based education in career advancement, financial planning and budgeting, and guidance in family care and management, to help these families get back on their feet. The complex will eventually accommodate up to 90 program participants at any given time.