Mesa will buy a hotel for "pre-shelter" help for unhoused people
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The Mesa City Council voted earlier this week to use federal pandemic relief funds to buy the 72-room Grand Hotel at Main Street and Power Road to house people experiencing homelessness.
Why it matters: The $7.4 million hotel purchase will allow the city to continue its Off the Streets program, which has a 75% success rate of moving people into shelters or permanent housing, deputy city manager Natalie Lewis tells us.
Flashback: The city started the program in 2020 with a very basic mission: Get people out of encampments and into private hotel rooms that the city rented to prevent the spread of COVID-19. But the results were unexpected, Lewis says.
- People who previously declined shelter because of sobriety rules or job requirements agreed to go to the hotel. And after a month or two there, they were ready to go into programs with more rules and move toward permanent housing.
- Lewis calls it a "pre-shelter" step the city learned is necessary for some people — especially those who have been on the streets for a long time.
What they're saying: "It was one of the good lessons from the pandemic. The pandemic was horrible but it would have been worse if we came out of that experience and didn't learn any lessons," Mesa Mayor John Giles tells Axios Phoenix.
What's next: The sale will take several months to close and the hotel will require some rehabilitation before it's ready for use. It could take two years to be fully operational, Lewis says.
Yes, but: The city will continue renting rooms nearby until the new hotel is ready to ensure there are no service gaps.