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Unhoused residents in Lansing will be able to extend their stay in a hotel after Ingham County set aside additional funds.
Residents of a former encampment in Old Town were placed in the Causeway Bay Hotel after a judge ordered the city to clear the encampment and provide temporary housing for the residents.
They were given six weeks in the hotel at an estimated cost to the city of $40,000. Those funds are set to run out by next week.
But another $76,000 from the Ingham County Housing Trust Fund will allow the residents to stay in the hotel for about two more months.
Ronald Wright moved to the hotel and said having access to running water, allowing him to shower and shave, helped him secure employment.
“Last time, I was telling you how I got my first paycheck,” Wright said. “Well, now I’m here to tell you that, here in a few weeks, I’m going to also have a place to stay. It’s all because of the Causeway Bay.”
Community Liaison and Critical Services Coordinator Kimberly Gillespie said the hotel placement is not intended to be indefinite.
She said the goal is to provide short term stabilization while residents transition into shelters or permanent housing.
Two residents staying in the hotel have secured housing vouchers but are awaiting placement to use them, Gillespie said. There are 49 residents staying in 25 rooms at the hotel.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: At the end of December, dozens of residents of an encampment in Old Town Lansing were moved into hotel rooms paid for by the city.
Since last summer, city leaders had been trying to clear the camp on private property. But many still have questions about where these people can go in the long-term.
WKAR’s Andrew Roth has been following this story, and he joins us now. Thank you for being here.
Andrew Roth: Yeah, thank you for having me.
Saliby: Initially, the City of Lansing had paid for six weeks of hotel stays for these folks, about 60 people. That ends next week. So, what is happening now?
Roth: So, the funding that the city had allocated, about $40,000, as you mentioned ends for some residents this week, some residents next week, depending on when they moved into the hotel.
Residents had asked for additional time in the hotel, and the Ingham County Housing Trust Fund has allocated another $76,000. That should be enough to extend the stay by about two months.
Saliby: A big question of this has been time. People needing the time in the hotel to potentially find housing. So, how many people have kind of made progress there? And I also know there's some people that have been kicked out of their hotel rooms for breaking rules. What is their future?
Roth: Yeah, so currently, there's 49 residents of the former encampment staying at the hotel. Two residents have received housing vouchers but are awaiting placement to use them. One resident who spoke at a previous City Council meeting to share that he was able to secure employment thanks in part to the hotel's running water, allowing him to shower and shave, says he will have a place to stay within a few weeks.
That number was initially a little bit higher, but eight residents were kicked out for breaking hotel rules. City Councilmembers expressed some concern about whether there was scaffolding in place for the residents who were kicked out. But the city isn't directly involved in the case management services.
Saliby: There are a lot of groups involved, just like you just said that the City of Lansing isn't doing case management here. So, what are these different groups involved at this point, the city, the Ingham County Housing Trust Fund. Who else is there, and what's their role in all of this?
Roth: Yeah, so the case management services are being provided by eight external agencies, including some public bodies like the Ingham County Health Department, and some private organizations like Punks With Lansing.
Saliby: And then what are some of these advocates saying about the situation with the hotels and the future for these people?
Roth: There's a lot of concern about what happens to these residents when the hotel stay ends, especially in the middle of winter. Greg Pratt is the president of Michigan HOPE. He wants the city to make the hotel stay available to any unhoused residents who need a place to stay, rather than limiting it just to residents of the former encampment.
Greg Pratt: The city is picking and choosing who we are helping right now. For example, nobody else in the city has an opportunity to go to that hotel that's homeless. It would have been awesome if they could go there right now when it was super cold out.
Saliby: Currently, that's not something the city has budgeted for. The way they determined the length of this six-week stay is by looking at how many residents they had staying in the hotel and figuring out how far they could stretch the funds that were already budgeted for hoteling. Kimberly Gillespie is the city's Community Liaison and Critical Service Coordinator. She says the hotel was never meant to be an ongoing solution.
Kimberly Gillespie: HRCS' primary objective remains consistent: to provide short term stabilization while actively supporting the agencies that are facilitating those transitions into shelter, permanent supportive housing or permanent housing. This hotel placement is not intended to be indefinite, but rather a time-limited intervention designed to create safety, structure and forward movement toward housing.
Saliby: So, what's next here for these folks staying in the hotel, and also for the future of this kind of what I see as a large-scale hoteling pilot?
Roth: Budget season for the next fiscal year is starting soon, and there's at least one proposal that would use some revenue from data centers to fund housing programs in the city. It will be interesting to see if council members seek to expand this program or make it permanent. But right now, the stay will end once the funding runs out in about two months.
Saliby: That was WKAR's Andrew Roth. Thank you for joining us.
Roth: Thank you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
