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OPINION
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Converting old hotels can help reduce homelessness
BY TOM SIMPLOT GSN Guest Writer
Recent increases in homelessness, coupled with the challenges brought on by the global pandemic, have made it progressively more difficult to provide enough shelter to house people living on the streets.
The majority of Arizona facilities that focus on offering food and shelter to those in need are at maximum capacity, often making it difficult to properly social distance.
Many times, people experiencing homelessness are faced with the choice of staying in a shelter (and facing a higher risk of acquiring COVID-19), or choosing a dangerous situation like sleeping in their cars or on the streets.
This is a decision no one should have to make.
Also as a direct result of the pandemic, many hotels and motels across the country have lost business, especially the older properties.
With these two factors in play, homeless and housing providers throughout the country, including here in Arizona, developed a new service model for transitional and permanent supportive housing. It’s called “hotels to housing.”
With the need to rapidly adapt service models during the pandemic to accommodate safety protocols while still continuing to serve the homeless, housing providers started to look at vacant hotels as an opportunity – an opportunity to turn unused rooms into housing for those who so desperately need it.
The “hotels to housing” concept allows homeless persons to be distanced for safety and stabilized in comfortable housing, before they move to permanent housing with the help of wraparound services.
We have already learned that this new model for housing makes following COVID-distancing requirements easier and provides more humane housing than large, congregate shelters. We have also learned that this model results in shorter stays in transitional housing, and may even offer permanent supportive housing.
Statewide, many homelessness agencies are moving to this new model and ADOH (AZ Dept. of Housing) is making major commitments to “hotels to housing.” ADOH has funded “Project Haven” in Phoenix, a former motel that will be transformed into a 130-unit transitional housing community for seniors so they can achieve the dignity they deserve, and JoJo’s Place in Flagstaff, a former hotel on Route 66 that will be converted into a transitional shelter for all ages.
ADOH is funding at least two more hotel acquisitions with federal CARES Act funding and we are developing a funding pipeline with additionalfederal funding.
Most hotel conversions plan to offer closed facilities, where only residents cleared to stay will be allowed, and include full-time security and on-site supportive services. Residents will be provided all the necessities, within the converted hotel properties, to stabilize and move toward self-sufficiency and permanent housing.
While the pandemic created even more problems for an already tenuous housing situation, it is also forcing Arizona to find new, innovative solutions.
Turning hotels into housing helps save lives and provides a potential long-term solution for reducing homelessness, but it also does something more. It offers a successful model for future regional, specialized housing that didn’t exist before.
Through “hotels to housing” projects, homeless Arizonans can be safe and secure under a roof, receive needed healthcare services, and eventually get back on their feet.
Tom Simplot is the director of the Arizona Department of Housing.
