After several years of planning and a year of construction, this past Sunday marked the grand opening and dedication of the Genesis II Apartments Inc. in Mullins. “It’s been seven years, including the purchase of this land,” said Dr. Mack T. Hines, pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church of Mullins. “We were coming down here the first Sunday each month to check on the elders (at the church) that lived in some old dilapidated apartments in the area.” Those apartments burned down and the church purchased the land. Now, there is a 15-unit senior citizens apartment complex on the site, at the corner of Week and Wine Streets. The homes are available to those 62 and older.
Frank Brown is the first and only tenant in the complex.“It’s great,” he said. “This is awesome, period. I moved in on June 11, and all you’re looking for is someone to treat you right and with mutual respect, and they did that.” Although Brown has lived in the complex for the past week, Thomasenia Robinson, the property manager with Orangeburg based N & H Enterprises, said it wouldn’t be that way for long. “If everything goes right with the paperwork, we could be moving people in as early as (Monday),” Brown said. Water, sewage, pest control, garbage collection and grounds maintenance are included in the rental fee, which is based on an individual’s ability to pay.
At the ceremony, Hines thanked his church congregation for its support in the project, along with Mullins Mayor Kenneth McDonald, Marion County Councilman Milton Troy, Sen. Kent Williams of Marion, Reps. Terry Alexander of Florence and Jim Battle of Nichols, and members of the Genesis II Board of Directors, most of whom were at the event. Grant writers for the project are RDA Housing Consultants Inc. of Columbia, owned by Renda and N. Wayne Allen, who helped attain a $1.46 million grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for the project. Architect is John A. Fisher of Florence. The Genesis project will receive $42,000 in yearly rent subsidies that are guaranteed for the first five years and can be renewed every five years afterward.
“My thing is that the church go beyond her wall, and that’s exactly what we’ve done here,” Hines said, adding that assisting senior citizens is important, with a number of them struggling to pay the costs of medicine along with housing payments. “Everything had to go to the Housing Urban Development guidelines ... if you didn’t have any faith and perseverence, you could easily give up,” he said. However, citizens didn’t give up on the community, as many of the neighbors have been begun the process of sprucing up the neighborhood, so the new building is having a rippling effect, Executive Director Linda Neal said, adding that the negative elements of the neighborhood are a thing of the past.
A special dedication capped off the grand opening as, Neal read a resolution that dedicated the Genesis II Apartments in honor of Hines. One of the complex’s buildings is now named the Mack T. Hines Community Building. For information about living at Genesis II Apartments, call Lynn Hall at (800) 632-3066.
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