BY RITA McINERNEY

Residents, volunteers and investors came together April 9 for an open house celebration at Good Shepherd Place in Cumming.

The apartments built under the auspices of Catholic Housing Initiatives, Inc. (CHI), are all occupied and 60 applicants are on the waiting list.

The first apartment project built by CHI was opened to tenants last Nov. 8 and the 48-unit building was filled in record time.

“There was a great need and people had been waiting for the longest time,” according to Faye Landey, director of CHI.

She recalled that, at the groundbreaking in December, 1992, she looked up at the hill and remarked, “Here we are. Someday there will be a building there.”

It is time, she told The Georgia Bulletin that CHI began looking at plans to build Phase 2 on the property, 12 wooded acres near the Canton Highway in Cumming.

Speaking the Catholic community and the residents, Archbishop John F. Donoghue expressed his gratitude to the investors who made construction of the housing venture possible. CHI is incorporated within the archdiocese Secretariat for Catholic Charities.

The archbishop toured the new facility and met the residents at a reception.

One resident, Guin Bonham, formerly of Tulsa, lived in Norcross and was a member of St. Patrick’s parish years ago. She saw the apartment facility when it was near completion and made an application for one of the units while visiting this area. She was told there was nothing available and returned to Tulsa where she had raised her family. When she later was informed that there was an apartment for her, she was overjoyed.

She prayed to the Lord “to show me where I should live, where He wanted me to go,” she told The Georgia Bulletin.

Mrs. Bonham, who spoke for the residents at the open house, is “very contented” in her new home. She already has found her niche. She plays the piano and leads her neighbors in song during social times at Good Shepherd Place.

Mrs. Landey said the Rotary Club of Cumming presented the new facility with picnic tables and benches. Lorne Twiner, a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Cumming, is Rotary president.

Good Shepherd place is designed for independent living with an elevator, mail room laundry facilities and community room and an emergency call system.

Residents come from the Cumming area, from Atlanta, Gainesville and Florida. There is an income ceiling under which people must qualify for the one- and two-bedroom apartments. Applicants must be 55 or older.