The sprawl of one of America’s fastest-growing cities hasn’t quite reached Brentwood yet.
Anticipating the influx, the city of Raleigh did something unusual: It bought a hotel.
In New York City, 9,000 people were relocated from shelters into hotels.
California’s Project Roomkey moved some 62,000 people experiencinghomelessnessinto hotels across the state.
For many, this was life-changing.
They concluded that “an unprecedented opportunity has arisen from the pandemic to end homelessness for many.”
Raleigh joins several cities across the country attempting to make hotels a more permanent housing solution.
Housing people without homes is not purely altruistic, Sutton adds.
If those people are housed, that cost drops to between $18,000 and $34,000.
“It’s more affordable to house people, overall,” says Sutton.
“And most of these people just need light-touch support, such as housing.”
But Raleigh’s and the country’s other hotels-to-housing projects remain nascent, and face many hurdles to success.
Not everyone has been on board with the hotel-to-housing concept.
Because they take away cities' hotel inventory, nightly rates at hotels around them can increase.
In Raleigh, however, there hasn’t yet been any noticeable pushback to thehotel project, says Sutton.
For one, the Brentwood neighborhood is still a ways off from feeling the effects of Raleigh’s sprawl.
The city also decided to circumvent regulatory rigmarole by keeping the building zoned as a hotel.
That said, getting the building ready has been a yearslong project.
A room at Hospitality Studios could cost as much as $379 a week.
For now, most rooms go for $200 a week.
If there’s no vacancy, the city will work with people to help themfind housingelsewhere.
Lynnette Moore is the hotel’s longest-tenured resident.
“People mostly stay to themselves.
“Now people seem to talk a bit more.
CASA hopes to have the Studios at 2800 fully renovated by 2030.
He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife and their two children.
