The Kenai Peninsula Housing Initiative, a not-for-profit organization that works to provide affordable housing to special-needs clients in the borough, is putting the finishing touches on a complex of eight supportive-housing units.

The 7,000-square-foot complex, called Brookside, is located on Mattox Avenue off East End Road. When it opens early next year, Brookside will offer a safe and affordable home for eight adults with developmental disabilities or mental illness, said Steven Rouse, the organization's executive director.

"This is all about the eight people who are currently living in substandard housing or isolated," Rouse said. "This facility is going to give them an affordable home and a permanent residence."

It also will offer tenants independence, a value people often take for granted, he said.

"(It) will give them the opportunity to thrive, not just survive, and become a more active part of the community," Rouse said. "Housing is fundamental. If you're secure in where you live, then you feel safe."

The housing initiative has a memorandum of agreement with the Community Mental Health Center to provide staffing, said Rouse.

Money for construction came from federal and state sources, and construction began in June.

Rouse said there will be a community housewarming Jan. 14. After that, residents of the peninsula will be able to help furnish Brookside by donating furniture or other items or contributing financially.

The complex's eight units boast nine-foot ceilings, and each is equipped with its own kitchen. Each unit measures greater than 400 square feet. Although only two of the units were required to have handicap-accessible bathrooms, all are fully accessible for the physically impaired, Rouse said.

Two also can accommodate visually and hearing impaired individuals.

Brookline will be available to those who qualify as beneficiaries of the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority, which administers trust funds on behalf of the state.

The housing initiative plans to rent the rooms at a rate that includes the cost of staff service and utilities, Rouse said. Beyond that, personal phone accounts or cable television will be the renter's responsibility.

The apartments line a long hallway that spills out into a large common area with picture windows overlooking Kachemak Bay. The common area will act as a dining and living room for residents and is adjoined by an equipped kitchen.

The facility's common areas, which include a therapy tub room, create an environment where no one has to feel confined to living as individuals all the time, said Chris Laing, former president of the housing initiative and an adult rehab coordinator at the health center.

"Everything about the support services and the home was done with the thought of encouraging people to interact with each other," said Lang.

People who live there will need a variety of psycho-social rehabilitative services, she said, and one or more staffers will be responsible for monitoring safe behavior and improving renters' quality of life.

The supportive housing will be the housing initiative's first major development project and its first work in Homer, said Rouse. Since forming in 1998, the initiative has restored homes for low-income families throughout the borough.

The organization wanted to responsibly develop the land, which was donated by the city last year, Rouse said. He wanted to keep aesthetics and environmental considerations in mind during development, and, as a result, the property is partially screened from the road by clusters of spruce trees. The driveway circles an open brook and was designed partially with money donated by the Homer Foundation, he said.

"I think that it will exceed expectation, especially with respect to the site work," Rouse said.

Chris Eshleman can be reached at Chris.eshleman@homernews.com.