The nonprofit Good Samaritan Services held a ribbon-cutting Tuesday to mark the opening of its first housing site in Lancaster.
The three-story row home at 616 N. Lime St. will serve as supportive transitional housing for up to four single mothers and their children. It has four bedrooms and shared kitchen, bathroom and living areas.
“This home will not only impact the lives of our program participants but also strengthen the community by offering support to our neighbors in need,” Hannah Miller, Good Sam’s chief program & impact officer, said in a statement.
Following the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the nonprofit offered tours of the interior.
Good Samaritan, “Good Sam” for short, is a nonprofit focused on helping people escape homelessness and achieve financial stability. It serves more than 800 clients a year in five Lancaster County and Chester County locations: Lancaster, Ephrata, Coatesville, Kennett Square and Phoenixville.
It renovated 616 N. Lime St. over the past year, using about $60,000 in donations, with major support coming from Bentley Systems, Clark Associates, Ferree Foundation and WellSpan Health.
The 616 N. Lime St. site previously housed the offices of Bridge of Hope, another nonprofit serving Lancaster and Chester counties. Bridge of Hope had acquired the building for $250,000 in 2013, according to county property records.
Good Sam acquired the property when it absorbed Bridge of Hope in 2017, said Rachel Shelley, Good Sam’s spokeswoman. Bridge of Hope Lancaster has since reopened but there is no connection to Good Sam, she said.
With the opening of 616 N. Lime St., Good Sam now has transitional living facilities in all five of its locations, totaling more than 100 beds. All sites provide case management and wraparound services. At 616 N. Lime St., there are two on-site resource coordinators and a licensed therapist will visit weekly, Shelley said.
Residents must be sober and be willing to work toward a “personalized stability plan,” she said. The goal is for them to stay no more than six months, but that can be flexible if circumstances dictate.
The transitional housing site is part of Good Sam’s 10-year strategic plan, which calls for all the nonprofit’s services to men, women and children to be available at all its locations, Shelley said.
(Editor’s Note: This article was updated to add information from Good Sam spokeswoman Rachel Shelley.)