Nonprofit supports housing for homeless

The Mississippi Gulf Coast has endured significant damage from natural and man-made disasters in recent years, leaving many on the edge of homelessness or without a home altogether. In response, Mississippi Care International purchased a block of apartments in Gulfport to help put a roof over the heads of those in need, WLOX-TV reports. Mississippi Care International asserts that this is not a program designed to act as a homeless shelter. Instead, the nonprofit is providing low-cost homes for families within the 55-unit Oregon Place Apartments. Any low-income family is eligible for housing as long as its members pass proper background screening measures. "It is, in fact, a place where our neighbors, friends and family... can go and live for a short while they're getting back on their feet," Roger Wilder, a board member for the group, told the news source. Such a program has been met with resistance in Yakima, Washington, according to the Yakima Herald. In that city, a nonprofit group named Catholic Charities is trying to land funding for a 121-unit apartment complex that would house the families of low-income agriculture workers. Despite the groups insistence that background checks will be conducted, local residents have rebuked the idea.