Raleigh buys hotel to help shelter people in need
The city of Raleigh has bought a 113-room hotel to shelter people in need.
The three-story extended stay hotel, built in 1987, will be paid for with $8 million of the city’s federal American Rescue Plan Act money. The Raleigh City Council will begin searching for a nonprofit partner to manage it.
Hospitality Studios, at 2800 Brentwood Road in northeast Raleigh, currently houses long-term guests. Those individuals won’t be affected by the change in ownership, according to a city news release.
“I am excited that we are taking this important step toward providing creative solutions for affordable housing in our city,” Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin said in a news release. “We need to continue to seek flexible, affordable housing options, such as this hotel, to provide temporary housing support for those in need in our community.”
People facing evictions or other barriers to stable housing sometimes stay in hotels for weeks and months at a time, but there aren’t good methods of counting them. Wake County has about 400 beds for those with emergency shelter needs across a handful of shelters, but more than 500 people on the waiting list.
“It’s an expensive way,” said Kim Crawford, executive director of Raleigh/Wake Partnership to End Homelessness. “Many people who are living in hotels and motels are paying a lot of money to be there because they can’t get around the affordable housing barriers.”
A past eviction, a criminal background or bad credit can all stop landlords from renting to people, she said.
Other funding
Raleigh already has plans for $27.5 million of its $73.2 million from the American Rescue Plan.
The city initially funded $1 million for nonprofits and $1.3 million for improvements to downtown including $650,000 for improvements at City Plaza.
And last week the city issued another $25.5 million including the money for the hotel.
Another $5 million will go toward the Carolina Small Business Development Fund to help support small businesses that were hurt during the pandemic.
The nonprofit received $1 million from the city in April 2020 and saw 564 applications for funding. About 200 businesses that applied received money.
Another $10 million will go toward “large-scale” proposals to tackle community health initiatives around mental health, food security and those “disproportionally impacted by the pandemic.”
People can say how they’d like the money to be spent by visiting the city’s website, raleighnc.gov.
