Fresno to get millions from California to convert this motel into homeless housing

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday the Fresno Housing Authority will receive over $7.6 million to purchase and rehabilitate a motel to house people experiencing homelessness.

The money is part of Project Homekey, a $600 million state initiative to flip underutilized hotels and motels across the state into interim and permanent housing. The grants are awarded on a rolling basis, with about half of the money awarded thus far.

“Shelters solve sleep. Housing and supportive services, we believe, begins to more substantively, permanently address homelessness,” Newsom said during a news conference Monday.

The city of Fresno, through the Fresno Housing Authority, applied for funding to convert four motels along the Parkway Drive Corridor, according to a housing authority news release on Tuesday. They received funding for one conversion so far — Motel 99, formerly known as Motel 6, located at 1240 N Crystal Ave, according to City Council President Miguel Arias.

The city is in negotiations with three other hotels in the area, but officials declined to name them on Tuesday.

Arias is hopeful the city will receive funding for all their proposed projects. They are in escrow processes for four motels, and they plan to acquire two additional motels using city funding to transform the area.

“This area has been the epicenter of human and drug trafficking,” Arias said. “This is the first domino in our strategy to clean up Motel Drive.”

City Councilmember Esmeralda Soria said the city set aside over $4.5 million in CARES Act funding to tackle homelessness, mainly through hotel renovations. She said they are waiting on the state’s remaining grant announcements to see how the city will apportion its own funds.

Eric Payne, executive director of the Central Valley Urban Institute, hopes the city will invest in the run-down streets, sidewalks, gutters, and sewers that comprise Motel Drive as well.

“While we are really excited about the Housing Authority’s commitment to revitalizing the area, I hope the city of Fresno will help meet the infrastructure needs that have been neglected for decades in the community,” Payne said.

Fresno County also applied for Project Homekey funds to convert 160 rooms at the Fresno Hotel on Blackstone, Department of Social Services Program Manager Laura Moreno said. The county is past the first hurdle, and in talks with the state about their proposal, but have yet to hear a final answer on funding, she told The Bee.

The state has multiple conditions for the money. First, the properties must be acquired by the end of the year. If the city fails to close escrow for the awarded motel, the money never materializes, Arias said. The city must begin housing people on the property by March 2021. And in the following two years, turn the motels into permanent housing, he said.

“The state is holding all our feet to the fire,” Arias said.