ROWLAND — Lumbee Tribe leaders announced Tuesday that they will be moving forward with a housing development in Rowland after having been awarded a $750,000 Community Development Block Grant.
The announcement was made during a press conference at the Lumbee Tribe Housing Complex, also known as The Turtle, by leaders of the tribe and Robeson County government, which partnered with the Lumbee Tribe in applying for the grant. The development, which will be located on N.C. 130 next to the former Rowland Motors, includes a senior community center and 24 single-dwelling housing units for the elderly.
“Our elders in Rowland have been waiting for this project for nine years,” Tribal Administrator Freda Porter said. “It took two attempts, but it’s done. It’s a long time coming.”
The town of Rowland has been waiting on the grant approval to move forward with annexing the property so the development can use the town’s water and sewer services.
“We’re thrilled,” Rowland Town Clerk David Townsend said. “Now we can move forward with our end.”
Porter first came before the county in June 2019 seeking the county Board of Commissioners’ help in applying for the grant. The commissioners did not hesitate to support the tribe’s plan to build affordable housing for the elderly in Rowland.
”It’s been a long time since we’ve had any type of building to speak of to this magnitude,” Robeson County Commissioner Roger Oxendine said. “This is going to allow them (elders) to go to a better place with affordable rates. It’s a godsend for the elderly in that community.”
The project was first presented almost a decade ago when the tribe bought the 12 acres of land.
“We were trying to identify a project that was a need for Rowland,” Lumbee Tribe Housing Director Bradley Locklear said. “The center focus for this project, for elders, was to create this community building surrounded by safe, affordable housing to complement that community center, so that’s what we’re accomplishing here.”
Porter and Oxendine said that early on the tribe realized the need for housing in the area.
“A lot of them have had some hurricane damage, and they just weren’t able to build their homes back or fix they’re homes because they’re elderly and they’re on fixed incomes,” Oxendine said.
The project will be split into several phases, with construction of the first phase to begin Feb. 1. The tribe has enlisted the help of the N.C. Department of Transportation in relocating a water main and installing deceleration lanes for safe entry and exit out of the development.
“We knew initially being on highway 130, coming out of Rowland, we needed to address the turning lanes and safe entrance and exit out of that site,” Locklear said.
Next will be the construction of a 3,000-linear-foot sewer extension, and building four housing units and the senior center. The two-bedroom units each will be 1,300 square feet in size and the community center will be 3,200 square feet.
Twenty homes will be built during the project’s final phase. The development is estimated to be complete within 18 months
Lumberton-based Koonce, Noble & Associates handled the majority of the civil work and engineering. The project’s architect is Mike Clark, of Native American Design Services in Pembroke. Driggers Construction, out of Hamer, South Carolina, was contracted to build the center and housing.
Lumbee Tribal Council member Carvicous Barfield, whose district covers Rowland, sees the project as a way to bring in revenue to the town and to spur population growth.
“It hasn’t had growth in a long, long time. There’s been more moving out than going in,” Barfield said. “It will be a great drawing factor for the town of Rowland.
“What we’re hoping is that with the site being built there, it will bring in better business for the town of Rowland; that some growth will sprout throughout the town.”
Oxendine said he sees it as a gateway.
“I see it being an avenue to more housing coming into there,” he said.
