Trinity Housing Corp.
Margaret McFaddin, Executive Director
1100 Sumter St.
Columbia, S.C. 29201
(803) 779-9067
(803) 254-4885 fax

Responding to its own community needs assessment and a call from the Columbia Mayor's Task force on Homelessness, the congregation of historic Trinity Episcopal Church established Trinity Housing Corp. in 1989 to serve two distinct but related purposes: To provide safe, affordable transitional housing for homeless families, and to provide support services to the families that would live there.

The program started small, using a duplex to house two homeless families, and a half-time staffer plus volunteers from the congregation, who offered the families "life skills" classes two evenings a month. Before long, four more families were added, living in rent-subsidized apartments, and within a year or so, a total of 11 families had been through the program, each working with church volunteers charged to "listen, guide, lead and model behavior."

With that background, in 1992, with assistance from city government, Trinity applied for and received a substantial HUD grant, $400,000 to purchase and rehabilitate an apartment complex, and $345,000 to provide support services for five years. The complex, now an attractive white-stucco development called St. Lawrence Place, now houses up to 30 families at a time, and operates with the HUD money, grants from the city, and financial assistance from The Cooperative Ministry, which subsidizes rent for one-third of the units.

Residents, under HUD regulations, are also expected to turn over one-third of any income they have as rent, but in the hard, real world of poverty in South Carolina, that amounts to a pittance averaging $59 a month. In the rare case in which a family's income is high enough that their rental would exceed the $250 monthly maximum, the excess is banked in an escrow account that is returned to them when they leave.

The life-skills classes are now given weekly, along with financial management counseling aimed at rebuilding residents' credit-worthiness; employment assistance and training referrals, and separate tutoring and life-skills programs for the children. Families are carefully screened, including criminal record checks, before admission to the program, and are subject to random drug testing; they may stay at St. Lawrence Place for 12 months plus one 6-month renewal.

With a staff of only three full-time employees and a $214,000 annual operating budget, Trinity Housing Corp. relies heavily on volunteers to get the job done. Church volunteers continue to participate as "Family Life Advisors," offering support and good advice to families in the complex; social-work students from the USC School of Social Work also offer counseling services two days a week as part of their internships.

But they're accomplishing a lot with a little: Although follow-up is limited, at least 40 of the 87 families who have participated are known to have gone on to permanent housing after their stay at St. Lawrence Place. A 1994 report found that out of 20 residents at the time, nine were in full-time jobs, four in full-time training programs, one in college, and one in vocational rehabilitation.

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