Rooms at the Quality Inn in Barre City have provided emergency housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness both during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Now a local affordable housing developer has negotiated the purchase of the property, and has received state funding to give the entire hotel a makeover, turning it into a permanent option for shelter with 24/7 supportive services.
The Vermont Housing and Conservation Board recently awarded the Barre-based Downstreet Housing & Community Development $8 million for the purchase and renovation of the hotel, as well as for its ongoing operation as transitional emergency housing.
“This funding allows us to move forward with our vision of transforming the Quality Inn into a supportive environment where individuals and families experiencing homelessness can find refuge and the necessary resources to secure more permanent housing options,” said Angie Harbin, executive director of Downstreet Housing & Community Development in a press release Monday.
In a Tuesday interview, Harbin called the Quality Inn emergency housing program a vital community resource, one “that, in many ways, we’re preserving with this purchase.” The Barre City Quality Inn is one of just two state-funded hotels in Washington County that houses families experiencing homelessness, she said.
Downstreet hopes to purchase the Quality Inn by November of this year and begin renovations in the warmer months, Harbin said. The state will continue to fund 30 out of the 42 rooms year-round, but at a lower nightly rate than the program has historically paid.
As far as operations, Harbin said “nothing is definitive” yet, but the plan is to provide 24/7 staffing for essential services and supportive programs that otherwise tend to be inaccessible in the evenings or on weekends. Where current residents will stay during construction remains to be decided.
The organization plans to make sure that the facility can be classified as “a hotel that prioritizes rooms for people experiencing homelessness.” The 12 rooms not reserved for the state program will be available for use by community members in need of a place to stay for a nightly fee, Harbin said. Continuing to operate the building as a hotel means the new project would not need to seek an exemption to existing zoning regulations, she explained.
The revitalization of the hotel addresses a “need [for] a full array of housing options to meet the full array of housing needs in Vermont,” said Harbin.
Recently, when Harbin called Barre’s Quality Inn to see about a room for a family, there were no openings, she added.
Downstreet’s purchase of the Quality Inn follows in the steps of a similar model that proved successful in Shelburne, said VHCB Executive Director Gus Seelig in an interview Monday.
Referring to a Champlain Housing Trust project that converted a former Days Inn into Harbor Place and made additional supportive services available to residents, Seelig said the approach has “proved to be an effective strategy in helping more people get into permanent housing” by providing support beyond the basic housing provided by the state’s emergency motel shelter program.
Just last June, the same Quality Inn was the site of a very different scene, when statewide evictions from the state’s motel program displaced roughly 800 unhoused people, including a handful staying at the Barre City motel.
This effort to expand resources for the unhoused comes at a time when homelessness in Vermont is on the rise, and a recent Supreme Court ruling allows municipalities to punish encampment in public places.
Seelig said that at meetings among Agency of Human Services staff, VHCB and related groups since the start of the pandemic, officials have identified this type of project as “of highest priority in meeting the need for supportive housing in Washington County.”
VHCB’s multi-million dollar award comes from legislative funds earmarked “specifically to address the shortage of housing for unhoused people and to create emergency housing,” Seelig said in the interview. “And this meets that criteria.”
Downstreet “had been in discussions with a number of property owners, and settled on this site as the most appropriate and best location from a bunch of different perspectives, including that it was already being used by the state for this purpose,” Seelig said. Additional benefits included the building’s location in the community, the quality of the building, and the ability to coordinate with other service entities nearby, he said.
“(S)o they really focused on negotiating a deal with the owner of that property,” said Seelig. “And once they did that, they applied to us for funding.”
The housing and conservation board is also exploring the possibility of funding a similar project in Rutland, according to Seelig. “Every community needs to figure out which property and which set of programs will meet their needs the best,” he added.
Clarification: This story was updated to reflect Downstreet’s intention to operate the Barre City project as a hotel after renovations.
