Fresno may spend $22 million on more motels for homeless next year. But there’s a catch
Fresno leaders are proposing about $22 million in the next fiscal year to expand a program purchasing blighted motels and turning them into homeless housing.
Leaders say it’s the most reasonably priced and quickest way to get people off the street, but it needs an infusion of permanent housing on the back end to be successful. That may be a difficult task in one of the hottest housing markets in the country.
Fresno used Project Homekey and other funding totaling about $39 million in the past year to buy four rundown motels, which combine for about 325 rooms.
The costs to refurbish them average $62,000 per unit, according to city staffers.
“For a new build construction, we were averaging between $350,000 and $400,000 per unit to build affordable housing,” Councilmember Miguel Arias said.
“As much as it costs us to do this (refurbish motels), it’s the most fiscally responsible and efficient thing to do.”
It takes another $13,600 per unit per year to furnish the room and staff the buildings, staffers say. So the city is looking at planning to buy and service more units at about $90,000 apiece.
Low-barrier shelters
City Manager Thomas Esqueda said the city has to continue to invest in low-barrier shelters, which can accommodate people on the street who have drug and mental health issues, pets or could even have been convicted of sex crimes.
The city has some experience in buying blighted motels because it did it last year, but the new proposal would build plans into the budget like other projects.
“Just like we’d do a capital plan for roads, do a capital plan for water (or) parks, we’re going to do a capital plan for housing,” Esqueda said.
None of the money in the proposed $22 million comes from the city’s general fund, which pays for police, firefighters and others services. Rather the money will come from state and federal sources, he said.
Fresno County homeless
Fresno’s homeless problem has risen after some success a decade ago.
Total homelessness in Fresno has grown from 1,486 people in 2019 to 2,510 people in 2020, according to results from January’s point-in-time count — three months before the coronavirus pandemic hit the central San Joaquin Valley.
The idea behind the motels is to allow people to go from emergency shelters to rooms at a motel for an indefinite length. Ideally, under the proposal, they’d move onto permanent housing, leaving the motel rooms open for more tenants.
The city’s plan also looks to change some of the motels to permanent housing, which could require a different kind of refurbishment, including merging rooms to make one unit.
Mayor Jerry Dyer said he is working with the Fresno Mission to employ homeless people to pick up trash at encampments and other areas. He said he is looking to expand that effort with other organizations.
The city is also planning to make showers and portable toilets available to homeless people by July 1, the same day the Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART) is expected to take over from the former Homeless Task Force.
HART is part of the city’s effort to implement a Commission on Police Reform recommendation to take police off of the first team to respond to homeless-related calls for assistance.
Along with those efforts, Esqueda said he’s looking at adding about 1,000 single-family homes all over the city. Making them ready to be built administratively can accelerate that process, he said.
Councilmember Luis Chavez said the city has to be able to add permanent housing to continue to move people off the street. The council hears often from residents complaining about homeless encampments.
The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled you can’t move people if they have nowhere to go.
“We want to have the capacity to transport those individuals into a place with services and housing,” Chavez said.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
