A project in Raleigh, North Carolina, is converting an affordable long-term long-term hotel to combat the 200% increase in the homeless population in recent years.
Raleigh’s American city has taken an unconventional step to deal with the growing homeless crisis: turning a long-staying housing hotel.
By 2021, Raleigh used $ 8 million from the American Rescue Plan Act to buy hospitality studios, one Hotel with 117 rooms near Boulevard capital. Now renamed Studios in 2800 Brentwood, the installation aims to provide accessible housing for existing and homeless tenants. This occurs when the homeless population of Raleigh increased by 200% from 2021 to 2024.
Raleigh joins a growing list of cities that convert permanent housing hotels, with the historic Diplomat Motel in Chicago and the 90 Sands in New York to offer housing. Congressman Suzanne Bonamici also presented the Project Turnkey Act, a FEDERAL MILLION PROPOSAL dollars to finance similar conversions across the country.
The benefits of hotel housing are well documented. One published in the Journal of Social Distress and Homelessness highlighted improvements in the health, safety and well-being of previously homeless individuals who lived in hotels during the pandemic.
Although promising, the housing hotel model faces obstacles. In some cities, the conversion of hotels Reduces accommodation offercausing the night rates to increase. New York City, for example, has seen hotel prices climb after many have been converted to migrant shelters.
The laws of rigorous zoning and expensive renewals – such as the Elevators Update And the addition of cooking facilities – also prevent the advance of more similar projects, refers to.
However, Raleigh was able to avoid significant resistance while keeping the property as a hotel. Instead of a complete remodeling, the city and the non -profit partner home adopted a phased approachgiving priority to security updates and gradual renewals.
Currently 70 of Studios at 2800 units are operational. Casa implemented a strategy of “light facelift” – Painting the rooms and adding furniture – while working for complete renewals by 2030. Plans include the conversion of the old hotel pool into a common green space and the transition from the building to solar energy.
Longstanding resident Lynnette Moore, who has lived in the hotel for 17 years, noticed a positive change. “People are almost always alone, but now they seem to talk a little more,” he says. “Perhaps when the common area is ready, we will all know better.”
