A local non-profit agency has unveiled a proposal to build an apartment complex on Franklin’s east side that would offer transitional housing and on-site services for homeless teenagers and young adults.
KIC-IT, which helps homeless teens in the area, wants to build a three-story, 48-unit apartment complex on the west side of Umbarger Lane and just south of the Franklin Cove Apartments.
The proposed building, dubbed Rockwell Pointe, would be on the east side of Franklin, near the Interstate 65 corridor. The land where the complex is proposed is surrounded by crop land, Franklin Cove and a vacant child care center.
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Original plans for the building and property cite main uses as providing affordable housing, which would include permanent supportive housing for homeless youth. On-site services for the residents, which would include satellite offices of several non-profit agencies, were also part of the plan.
The timeline of the project is on hold after a variance that was being sought by KIC-IT was denied by the Franklin Board of Zoning Appeals this week. The variance application filed with the city details that offices of 10 non-profit agencies, including some that work directly with the homeless population, would be housed in Rockwell Pointe.
Proposed land for the site is already zoned for residential use, including for apartments. However, the variance application was to combine the supportive housing with on-site professional offices, which the land is not zoned for, said Alex Getchell, senior planner with Franklin.
The city’s board of zoning appeals denied the variance because a state law says that the variance proposal would have to prove hardship, which means that the land could not be used for what it was zoned for. The hardship was not proven because the land could still be used for apartments, without the offices, according to the board’s review.
The organizers who have spent more than a year planning the complex and several years grappling with the county’s homeless are working to figure out what will happen next with the project, said Kim Spurling, executive director of KIC-IT.
Non-profit officials and county leaders have for years discussed ways to help the county’s homeless population and neither the city or county have a place where people struggling with homelessness can get shelter and services at the same time. The county does not have a dedicated homeless shelter where people needing a temporary place to stay can seek refuge.
Studies of homelessness done by the United Way of Johnson County prompted the social services agency to create No Place to Call Home about three years ago.
No Place to Call Home offers case management and financial assistance to residents struggling with homelessness. The United Way of Johnson County contracts with KIC-IT to provide some case management for the program, but No Place to Call Home is separate and is not directly involved with the apartment proposal, said Nancy Lohr Plake, executive director of the United Way of Johnson County.
Multiple non-profit agencies across the county have dedicated part of their resources to helping homeless people in the area.
