Nonprofit aims to get shelter beds to Berkeley County

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCSC) - A Lowcountry nonprofit submitted a $2.7 million plan to Berkeley County leaders for a project to help those experiencing homelessness in the county.

The Grace Impact Development Center in Moncks Corner says there are no shelters in Berkeley County and say they have a proposed plan that would change that.

But they need the county to step in to assist with funding the project.

“We are targeting our county because of the federal CARES Act funding that they received that can be used in this way,” Executive Director Tory Liferidge says. “I just spoke with the CEO of a shelter in Horry County and she was saying they received a substantial amount of CARES Act funding for their shelter to do their operations.”

The first phase of the project would bring 40 individual and family shelter pods, restroom facilities and service providers to give wraparound care to those in need. Their hope would then be to replicate this in other counties.

A later phase would add affordable senior housing and housing for vulnerable people on a property the partnering church, Grace Reformed Episcopal, already owns.

Liferidge says when people hear homelessness, typically only one image comes to mind. But Liferidge says the center is dealing with people who are working poor, spending their checks on weekly extended stays and even families living with others in certain school districts because they cannot afford to live there.

The center is asking for the public’s help in the form of signatures on a petition to encourage the county to provide the funding.

Berkeley County has not yet responded to a request for comment on the project.

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