Keystone Corners to break ground

Nonprofit Spokane Mental Health will break ground next week on two East Central Neighborhood buildings to house people with chronic mental illnesses.

Keystone Corners, to be built at 2021 and 2218 E. First Ave., will offer federally subsidized, one-bedroom apartments to people who have documented disabilities and make less than 50 percent of the area median income. The roughly $3.4 million project, also sponsored by nonprofit Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs, will help compensate for the recent loss of low-income housing downtown, said Sheryldene Rogers, a development consultant with Goodale & Barbieri Co. (Click here for a list of past developments.)

The buildings are a couple miles down First Avenue from where poor tenants were displaced from the Commercial Building, Otis Hotel and New Madison last year.

For people with mental illness, a stable home environment makes treatment more effective, Rogers said.