A one-star motel in San Luis Obispo could soon become the site of a transitional housing complex for homeless families under a new city plan.
The city of SLO and People’s Self-Help Housing are partnering on a Project Homekey grant application that, if awarded, would provide up to $18 million to buy the Homestead Motel on Olive Street and retrofit it into 20 to 30 housing units.
According to Ken Trigueiro, CEO of People’s Self-Help Housing, which is taking the lead on the project, the Highway 101-adjacent motel has been on the market for “a while” and local agencies are anxious to capitalize on a $736 million pool of state homelessness funds.
“It’s been for sale,” Trigueiro told New Times. “We’ve been thinking and looking and trying to evaluate different properties and sites and relationships. … The city knew Homekey was coming eventually and probably realized that this motel is for sale as well. We struck up conversations.”
On March 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom opened the state’s third round of Project Homekey grants—a pandemic-era program that encourages local agencies to identify existing buildings to rapidly create homeless shelters and housing.
At an April 18 meeting, the SLO City Council signed off on the city’s participation in the grant, and the state officially opened the Homekey application window on April 24. According to a city staff report, the state is earmarking about $22.8 million in Homekey funds for the Central Coast region.
Tentative plans for the 1950s-era Homestead Motel involve retrofitting its rooms into 15 permanent housing units with kitchenettes and other facilities and installing about 15 “tiny modular structures” on the property for more transitional-style housing.
The site would be staffed 24 hours a day, with social services professionals from the county and/or a nonprofit like the Community Action Partnership of SLO County (CAPLSO) working daily with the clientele, according to the staff report.
The intent is for the project to prioritize local families experiencing homelessness.
“I think that’s where an unmet need is,” Trigueiro said. “[The 40 Prado Homeless Center in SLO] just doesn’t have enough space—on the transitional or permanent side—to accommodate larger families.”
Trigueiro added that the specifics of the project are a work in progress. He said it is similar in concept to the recent 63-unit Motel 6 conversion in Paso Robles, which was also led by People’s Self-Help Housing and funded by a Homekey grant.
“It compares in some respects to that, on a lot smaller scale,” Trigueiro said. “We’d own and operate the permanent supportive housing and have a homeless services provider, like CAPSLO, operate the transitional or temporary housing side.”
While nothing is final yet, Trigueiro said he thinks the project has a good chance of succeeding. The Homestead Motel owner is interested in selling to the nonprofit, and the parties are in active discussions, he said. Trigueiro added that because the project is smaller, it has a better shot at earning state approval.
“I’m going to be fairly optimistic because the state’s put something like $736 million into this round and that’s a substantial amount,” he said. “And this is a relatively smaller ask than some other areas.” Δ
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 7, 2023.