JOELTON, Tenn. (WTVF) — A local non-profit is taking the next step in its efforts to help unhoused mothers find a place to live.
It's called BLOOM, and it stands for Building Life Opportunities & Options for Mothers.
They are holding a ribbon cutting for their first official BLOOM house. They'll be able to give three single moms a place to stay and jobs to work towards home ownership.
The ribbon cutting will be at 3 p.m. on Sunday at the house in Joelton.
The newly renovated house has three bedrooms so each mom can have her own private space.
It also sits on three acres of land so that eventually they can grow and sell flowers to help pay for the house and give moms an opportunity to earn money for their own house.
"We want this to feel like a home. We want it to feel like a warm hug. When people come through the door we want people to feel safe and comforted and know that they will have a village around," said BLOOM Founder & CEO Dr. Rolanda Lister.
While they can only have three moms at a time in this first house, they plan to expand and get more houses.
"Right now we can only accept three women, but I think that will also be our motivation knowing that hey, there are so many other women that need help.13:56 And so what our future will look like for those women and how we will be able to serve more women in the future" said BLOOM admin Kewanna Frierson.
They are also working with community partners to provide other services like floral design, job skills training, and financial literacy classes.
BLOOM got started when Dr. Rolanda Lister who is an OBGYN was treating high-risk patients and noticed mothers in low-income areas with overcrowded or unstable housing have more negative outcomes.
"I think that's really important for Nashville, because as the cost of living increases and it pushes out people outside of affordable housing. There's really a crisis affordable housing and that trickles down to affecting maternal health for both herself and her offspring," Dr. Lister said.
The hope is to have the moms move in in a few months, by either late March or early April. And they hope to start planting flowers by April.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Eric.Pointer@newschannel5.com.
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