Rehabilitating older buildings key to helping unhoused individuals
Tucson’s Housing and Community Development releases its annual report
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - The city of Tucson’s Housing and Community Development has released its annual report and it highlights housing developments like the Amazon Flats.
The city bought the Amazon Motel on Miracle Mile in June 2023 and started converting it to Amazon Flats in December 2024. It’s one of the highlights of the annual report and one of many projects the city is working on that reuses older buildings.
HCD Director Ann Chanecka told 13 News rehabilitating these older buildings and using them for supportive housing units has been effective.
“There is about a 70% success rate in people who are staying at the Wildcat Inn obtaining permanent housing, so that’s the type of program that we know is working and we want to expand that program.”
The Amazon Motel was purchased using $6.1 million in funds from the Arizona Department of Housing. The motel was used for about 15 months after that, helping 86 people find a permanent home. Now, like the Wildcat Inn before it, it’s being rehabilitated to help the unhoused in our community starting with Phase 1.
“It is in construction now. That is the renovation of the former mote,” said Chanecka. “That will be 30 units of studio apartments for persons experiencing homelessness.”
Phase 2 would add more than 50 rooms.
This all comes just after the opening of Milagro on Oracle, which repurposes the No-Tel Motel property.
Rehabilitating and using older buildings is important to the city and, according to Corky Poster, an architect with PMM Design.
It costs twice as much to build projects from scratch. Poster added that, in cases like the Tucson House which Poster is helping the city with, there’s just no place to put the rubble if it’s torn down.
This is all in addition to the fact that some of these buildings are important to the community.
“People wanted us to focus on housing affordability but another goal we heard was historic preservation,” Chanecka said. “So there’s the Historic Miracle Mile. As that project ended up unfolding, we realized there was an opportunity to hit several of those goals.”
The annual report also highlighted resources for the unsheltered community and highlighted the new Amphi Housing First Resource Center, which will repurpose old Fire Station 8.
Though the report highlights many of the good things HCD has done, it also spotlights some of the challenges ahead.
That includes grants coming to an end, which HCD has been prepared for. One of the biggest points of uncertainty is what future federal funding will look like.
You can find the annual report HERE.
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