The Vermont Housing & Conservation Board has awarded $8 million to the nonprofit Downstreet Housing & Community Development to purchase and renovate a Barre City motel that has been used to house homeless people since the pandemic.
The central Vermont affordable housing developer plans to continue offering rooms under the state’s General Assistance Emergency Housing program, executive director Angie Harbin said, and providing services at the former Quality Inn.
“We are going to operate it as a hotel, similar to the way that it’s been operated historically,” she said. “We will also be renting out units to folks who are experiencing homelessness and working with the [Agency of Human Services] to do that work.”
The planned renovations at the 42-room motel include structural repairs, replacing carpeting with hard-surface flooring and repainting the building’s exterior. The organization’s long-term plan is to convert the building into permanent housing once the repairs are completed.
“We are thinking through what the winter months mean for shelter needs in central Vermont, and so we may actually wait until April or May to start that rehab work,” Harbin said.
In addition to housing, Downstreet provides support resources for people experiencing homelessness. Harbin said the organization tries to help residents meet their basic needs and find a path to more stable housing.
While the nonprofit has yet to hammer out specific rules for residents, the motel will be geared toward housing families and won’t be a congregate living situation.
Harbin told Seven Days that Downstreet already has 70 units of housing in Barre, but this is the organization’s first hotel project in the city.
“What we know is that [the housing in Barre is] just not enough and that we need the space to meet the demand,” Harbin said
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