TOLEDO, Ohio — Construction is underway on Mission Point, a $22 million, 65-unit apartment community in downtown Toledo built specifically for people experiencing chronic homelessness and living with mental health challenges, according to Toledo.com’s report of the Nov. 6 groundbreaking and 13abc (WTVG)’s coverage of the ceremony.
The four-story building is rising at Monroe and 14th streets, next to Cherry Street Mission’s Life Revitalization Center, Toledo.com reported. All 65 apartments are one-bedroom units, rents will be based on income, and Lucas Metropolitan Housing will provide financial assistance to eligible residents who qualify for federal housing subsidies, paired with on-site social services.
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Toledo.com described Mission Point as the largest newly constructed multistory building in Toledo history dedicated to the modern supportive housing model, and the largest single infusion of brand-new supportive housing units built simultaneously under one roof in the city. That scale is the point: supportive housing combines a permanent apartment with services on site, rather than asking residents to hold an address first and find help elsewhere later.
The project has been six years in the making. Leaders with Lucas Housing Services Corporation, the nonprofit affiliate of Lucas Metropolitan Housing, and Cherry Street Mission began planning Mission Point with local, state and federal partners in 2020, Toledo.com reported. Cherry Street Mission CEO Ann Ebbert and LMH President and CEO Senghor Manns were among the leaders marking the start of construction.
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The financing reflects how many layers a project like this needs. Toledo.com reported the roughly $22 million package involves the Toledo-Lucas County Homelessness Board, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the State of Ohio and the Ohio General Assembly, the City of Toledo, Lucas County, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Huntington National Bank, LISC Toledo, the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County, CREA LLC, CareSource, Emerald Development and Economic Network (EDEN) and the Federal Home Loan Bank.
Northwest Ohio-based Rudolph Libbe Group, partnering with Boyd & Associates, serves as general contractor, Toledo.com reported. Construction is tentatively expected to finish toward the end of 2027, which would put the first residents in their apartments roughly seven years after planning began.
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City leaders say Toledo is facing a growing homelessness crisis, according to Toledo.com’s report, and Mission Point is aimed at the hardest end of it: chronic homelessness, where people cycle among shelters, emergency rooms and the street for years. A permanent unit with services in the same building is designed to break that cycle by making the apartment the stable base everything else is built on.
The location does part of that work, too. Building next to Cherry Street Mission’s Life Revitalization Center puts the new apartments beside meals, shelter and programs its future residents may already use, in a downtown corridor where services are concentrated instead of scattered across the county.
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Related coverage: Toledo readers have followed a busy fall for community investment — see how Toledo and Bowling Green turned the Battle of I-75 into a food drive, the latest on the case where eight people sued a Toledo trucking firm over the October chemical release, and the $3.7 million Lyme disease vaccine grant at UToledo.
Project plans presented for Mission Point describe support services, property management and common areas on the building’s first floor, with the 65 one-bedroom apartments above — the layout the supportive housing model usually takes, so help is downstairs rather than across town. Cherry Street Mission will own the building and provide supportive services, according to the project presentation, drawing on the ministry’s existing work beside the site.
That arrangement is why local leaders have framed Mission Point as restoration rather than warehousing. Toledo.com reported that leaders herald the project for its vision of life-changing restoration for people with mental health challenges — housing first, with the services that help a resident keep that housing wrapped around it from the day the doors open.
What happens next: construction continues through 2027 at Monroe and 14th, with completion tentatively expected toward the end of that year. Residents will be Toledo-area people experiencing chronic homelessness and individuals with mental health challenges, the population the building was designed for. Watch for leasing and resident-selection details from Lucas Metropolitan Housing and Cherry Street Mission as the building nears completion.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA