Workforce development, a new senior center, new irrigation systems and a new family center for southeast Colorado Springs are among the many projects that could get a piece of the
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Pastor Ben Anderson, executive director of Solid Rock Community Development Corporation, recently provided updates on The Village at Solid Rock, a new affordable housing project in Southeast Colorado Springs. He and Daryn Murphy, vice president of Commonwealth Development, hosted a community Zoom meeting in April to provide updates on the affordable housing project that will create 77 units of workforce housing at the northeast corner of Rainier and Arlington drives in the Pikes Peak Park neighborhood.
âSolid Rock Church purchased land probably 3½ years ago, and went through a series of discussions on how best to serve southeast Colorado Springs with the land,â said Anderson. âWeâve had multiple ideas, but we finally decided that the best way to serve southeast Colorado Springs was to build affordable housing. It was unanimous, we just felt this was the right thing to do as a church and it was the right thing for us to do as a community development corporation
As a young woman in Southeast Colorado Springs, Latrina Ollie looked around and saw all the problems many others see when they visit her corner of town: higher rates of crime and poverty than most other parts of the city, a lack of economic development, and too few opportunities for young people to realize a better future for themselves.
Rather than look for answers outside of the neighborhoods where she grew up, Ollie realized that the changes she and her neighbors were seeking could â and perhaps should â come from within.
âFor me, it was always just a matter of wanting to do more, not really knowing how to do more, but I knew there was something that needed to be done,â said Ollie. âThatâs when I was able to help form a community engagement group, called Be the Change 719.â