In an effort to provide transitional youth housing, the City of Albuquerque is purchasing and planning to upgrade a two-story, 106-room hotel on the northeast side of the city.
The San Mateo Inn at 2424 San Mateo Boulevard NE was formerly a Motel 6, and before that a La Quinta Inn location. It has been branded as the San Mateo Inn for the last two years.
The City has purchased the 25,200-square-foot building for $4.7 million for a project using local, State of New Mexico, and federal funds.
The idea behind what is being called the Young Adult Housing Navigation Center is to provide shelter for up to 90 days for young people aged 15 to 25 years of age who are out on the street.
The problem may be bigger than imagined: according to a study published two years ago by the Beltsville, Maryland-based Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation there are up to just a little over 2,300 people in Bernalillo County in that age range with no place to live.
As envisioned, the program will be run along the lines of the City’s current temporary family housing effort which is tasked with providing housing for three months before transitioning residents into something permanent.
Upgrades to the hotel, which was built in 1970 and saw some renovation in 2018, may see a reconfiguring of the rooms in order to accommodate more shelter space. It is thought that work on the building will most likely be completed by the summer of 2025.
The City has found potential in repurposing older and underperforming hotels for affordable housing purposes. Last year saw the purchase of the former 104-room Sure Stay Hotel near the intersection of Lomas Boulevard and Eubank Boulevard.
That $11 million project, with the 30-year-old hotel renamed the Los Altos Lofts, reduced the overall room count of the structure to around 90 studio and single-bedroom apartments.
By Garry Boulard
Image Credit: Courtesy of Pixabay
