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Biden administration moves to protect Alaska wilderness; opening statements and first witness in NY trial; SCOTUS hears Starbucks case, with implications for unions on the line; rural North Carolina town gets pathway to home ownership.

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The Supreme Court weighs cities' ability to manage a growing homelessness crisis, anti-Israeli protests spread to college campuses nationwide, and more states consider legislation to ban firearms at voting sites and ballot drop boxes.

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Wyoming needs more educators who can teach kids trade skills, a proposal to open 40-thousand acres of an Ohio forest to fracking has environmental advocates alarmed and rural communities lure bicyclists with state-of-the-art bike trail systems.

Union-Founded Nonprofit Provides Needed Affordable Housing

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Tuesday, May 20, 2014   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A union-founded and run nonprofit organization is providing affordable housing for people with disabilities in Charleston.

Human Resource Development and Employment (HRDE) runs 18 low-income apartment complexes around the state – about 750 units total, mostly housing for the elderly.

Claudette Karr, housing coordinator for Southern West Virginia with HRDE, says the group is breaking ground now on the Thomas Patrick Maroney Unity Apartments.

The apartments will be on Lewis Street in Charleston, near the state headquarters of the AFL-CIO.

Karr says the new apartments will be designed for people with disabilities.

"The cabinets are going to be somewhat lower,” Karr explains. “The kitchen sinks, you'll be able to roll right in there.

“These wheelchair showers are wide open, and you can just drive that chair right on in."

According to Karr, there are nearly 40,000 people with disabilities in the Kanawha Valley, but only 14 low-income apartment units.

She says the new apartments will nearly double that number.

HRDE was founded by people from the state AFL-CIO in 1976. Today, the board of directors of the union also serves as the board for the nonprofit organization.

Karr says HRDE is truly nonprofit, that all money it makes at the end of the year is reinvested in the housing.

She says it's a labor of love for the people like her who work there.

"It's good to be able to pull up, see the little lights in the windows and know that we've done our best to see to it that people are comfortable and safe,” she says. “It's just an awesome feeling to be part of HRDE."

Nearly 90 percent of the nonprofit group's apartment units are set-aside for low-income elderly tenants.

Sliding-scale rent means no one pays more than a third of his or her income for housing.

Karr says some of those complexes also have social workers on staff. And she says the folks who work for the non-profit group take pride in turning the apartments into communities.

"When they become a resident, they also become a part of our family,” she says. “We have gained so many friends in the different communities that we're established in."





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