SE Valley Times

ICYMI, the Arizona Republic/AZ Central recently posted a story about the City of Mesa's Off the Streets program and the Windamere Hotel vital role in the program.

***

At a glance, the Windemere looks like just another budget hotel on Mesa’s Main Street. And, in part, it is.

But hidden from street view is its other purpose: For the past three years, the 114-room hotel and conference center has also been a temporary refuge for people experiencing homelessness.

Hotels turned shelters took off during the COVID-19 pandemic, with cities across the country taking advantage of vacant rooms to house their unsheltered populations and prevent viral spread.

Most of these projects are all-or-nothing, meaning local governments rent or buy the properties and use them entirely for shelter space. The Windemere, however, simultaneously operates as both a commercial hotel and a city-sponsored emergency shelter.

Like so many things during the pandemic, the project was born out of quick thinking and an immediate need. In May 2020, Detective Aaron Raine of the Mesa Police Department was given three days and an unprecedented mission: find somewhere for the city’s unhoused population to stay.

“I went door-to-door to probably 100 hotels in the area and asked to rent rooms,” Raine said.

What started as a three-month pilot program celebrated its three-year anniversary in May.

During the pandemic, the city also partnered with three other hotels in the area. Only the Windemere still remains in what is now known as the “Off the Streets” program.

Paying customers stay in a separate building and utilize about a quarter of the Windemere’s rooms, while people in the city’s program occupy the remaining 85 rooms.

Participants are referred to the 90-day program by Mesa first responders, park rangers and community providers. Women, families, older adults and people with multiple disabilities are given priority, said Raine, who continues to oversee the program.

“Our goal is to try to get the most vulnerable of the vulnerable off the street,” Raine said.

The program does a good job of it, according to the city’s data. As of May, it has served more than 1,500 people with a success rate of nearly 75%, meaning those people left for transitional housing or another housing program.

Unlike most shelters, Windemere hotel accepts pets, couples

The program isn’t cheap. Leasing rooms at the Windemere costs about $1.7 million a year, said Deputy City Manager Natalie Lewis at a May 11 City Council meeting.

But the city cut a better deal than the average customer. Rooms at the Windemere currently average between $80 and $100 a night, hotel booking websites show. When averaged out, the city pays about $50 a night.

The hotel sometimes attracts out-of-town guests for big events like MLB spring training, Raine said. But that’s not the norm.

“Frankly, a lot of the rooms that are being leased, for the most part, are other people who are pretty close to being in our program because they're down on their luck,” he said.

Hotels offer an alternative to traditional congregate shelters, which aren’t for everyone. Congregate shelters can bunk dozens or even hundreds of people in just a few large rooms. They’re also typically segregated by sex, and most don’t allow pets.

The Windemere accommodates both couples and pets.

“It’s preferred, actually,” Raine said of couples staying together. “I get two-for-one.”

Meals, medical care, supportive housing:Flagstaff motel will become housing for the homeless

Rooms are in high demand. The program is typically full and has a waitlist for families, who are given bigger rooms with a kitchenette.

Mesa's hotel initiative is funded by the city and is run in conjunction with Community Bridges Inc., a behavioral health and addiction treatment nonprofit that oversees similar programs at several other hotels throughout the Valley.

In addition to shelter, residents of the Windemere are provided medical and behavioral health services and assistance finding permanent housing. They also get some of the small luxuries typical of hotels, such as weekly room cleanings, fresh towels and tiny bottles of shampoo.

“I think it gives them a little piece of humanity sometimes,” said Maria Wildey, Community Bridges’ senior director of housing and community integration.

The future of Mesa's 'Off the Streets' program

In May, Mesa authorized $7.4 million to purchase another hotel to house people experiencing homelessness in order to make the “Off the Streets” program permanent.

Owning the Grand Hotel, a 72-room hotel just a mile down the road from the Windemere, means the city will have full control over the property and won’t have to pay to lease rooms or cover extra charges, like pet fees, which amount to an additional $10 per day, Raine said.

Having more shelter space also allows the city to enforce its urban camping laws, Lewis said. That means people who are sleeping outside and refuse to go into an available shelter can be arrested or cited.

Like most hotels turned into shelters, the Grand Hotel will be used entirely for housing and will not simultaneously operate as a hotel.

Even after the Grand Hotel launches, Mesa could continue leasing rooms at the Windemere if additional space is needed.

“It’s possible, and likely probable, until we get a handle on our scope of homelessness,” Raine said.

Original source can be found here.