In yet another move to find new housing opportunities for homeless residents, the City of Tucson has announced a plan to purchase a durable 1950s-era motel for use as a new shelter space.
For a purchase price of $2.6 million, Tucson has now acquired the long-standing two-story Amazon Motel, whose official address is 1135 W. Miracle Mile.
Located some 4 miles to the north of downtown Tucson, the motel was once advertised as offering “Color T.V., heated pool, and phone.”
Funding for the project is coming from a $6.1 million grant awarded to the city by the Arizona Department of Housing.
City sources have said that work on the motel will include refurbishing the more than 30 rooms on the property, while also building an additional apartment complex on the site.
The Amazon Motel project is in keeping with an ongoing City of Tucson effort to purchase older motel and hotel properties to provide housing not just for the homeless, but also those who may be regarded as “house-cost burdened.”
In the spring of 2020 during the initial weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city purchased three hotels to be used for the homeless with funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
In a just a few short months, nearly 400 rooms were reconverted for permanent housing use.
In June, the City of Tucson’s Department of Housing and Community Development announced it had received $2.7 million to be used for both preserving existing bed space for the homeless, while also expanding ongoing shelter services.
A survey released earlier this year revealed that the homeless population of Tucson and larger Pima County had increased by more than 60% in the last 5 years for a total of just over 2,200 people.
Although the numbers are large, city officials have said that progress has been made: in 1999, according to a study partly undertaken by the University of Arizona, the figures were in excess of 3,000.
By Garry Boulard
