Austin OKs Plan To Buy And Retrofit A Motel To House Homeless

[TexasTowelie]

The Austin City Council unanimously passed an $8-million plan to buy and repurpose the Rodeway Inn in South Austin to house people transitioning out of homelessness.

The motel could house at least 87 people.

Billed as a more proactive approach to provide more immediate housing, the proposal allows the city to buy the land using money initially allocated for an emergency shelter off Bannister Drive and Ben White Boulevard. The deal will be finalized after a 90-day review period.

The Ending Community Homelessness Coalition would lease and operate the facility, which aims to house people without preconditions like mandatory case management or substance abuse treatment. It's a strategy ECHO Executive Director Matt Mollica has used previously in his work with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

Before council's discussion, Mark Thompson, vice president of the Timber Ridge Condo and Townhome Homeowners Association, said the decision could increase crime and drug activity in the neighborhood behind the motel.

Read more: https://www.kut.org/post/austin-oks-plan-buy-and-retrofit-motel-house-homeless

[rampartc]

1. how about buying old hotels

and hiring homeless people to maintain them?

might also be an alternative to tax sales, and, for the free market freaks, foreclosures.

the old us highways are full of dilapidated motels.

[TexasTowelie]

2. I'm not opposed to such a program,

but I don't think that providing long-term employment was the motive behind this program. The impetus is to get as many homeless people off the street as possible within a short period of time. The hotel is up to code (or close to it) so it has some value in that it isn't shoving the homeless from one unhealthy area with no sanitation (under the bridges) to another unhealthy area (a rat's den).

Hiring the homeless also leaves the city on the hook for providing them the city minimum wage, other payments, and the outflow of cash to the feds for FICA and SS taxes so it may be more cost effective to be benevolet while not employing them vs. putting them on the payroll.

[handmade34]

3. when working in Utah

I had the pleasure of seeing all they are doing to house homeless... I had to access an old hotel that Salt Lake City had turned into housing for homeless Veterans... so good to see