FLINT, MI - The city will partner with a local shelter and hotel to provide emergency, temporary housing to people who are homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.
City Council on Monday, May 11, approved awarding $138,904 in federal funds to Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties to support temporary housing for its tenants at a Holiday Inn Express. The hotel will only be used to house healthy people who are homeless if the three shelters’ COVID-19 quarantine units fill up.
“These are from unspent funds from previous years,” Flint’s Director of Planning and Development, Suzanne Wilcox said. “For various reasons, agencies had money left over from their contracts and it’s put in a big pot. We can’t tell you which agency or contract it came from.”
The Holiday Inn Express is located on Longway Boulevard, near I-495 Highway. The hotel has 120 rooms, according the Flint and Genesee Chamber of Commerce’s Visitors and Convention Bureau. A spokeswoman for the hotel could not be immediately reached for comment.
The shelters normally have 263 available beds, that number has decreased to 200 beds during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a city resolution, this means many people who are homeless remain unhoused. The shelter serves 2,765 people a year.
Flint City Council considers emergency shelter for the homeless
The program, Well Space Shelter Program, will provide temporary housing for people who aren’t infected with COVID-19 but need a place to stay. It will cost $337,000 to operate the program, Flint is providing a portion of the funding, according to Wilcox. It will also provide key health and human service resources to people who need them. The program will only be activated when it’s needed.
The three shelters have 40 isolation beds in their quarantine units. When that capacity is met, healthy residents at the shelter will be transferred to the Holiday Inn Express in Flint. This will allow the shelters to provide beds for people who are homeless and have tested positive for COVID-19.
“(This will protect) the community from further spread, as well as alleviating much needed space in the hospital,” according to the resolution by City Administrator Clyde Edwards.
The program will assess the health, housing and behavioral needs of the tenants during the referral process. In addition to providing a short term solution, the program aims to foster a long term solution by safely transitioning people back to the shelter they were transferred from or other housing they may qualify for.
Flint hotel could be emergency quarantine for homeless with coronavirus
The money, unprogrammed Community Development Block Grants, will cover hotel room costs, food and water, as well as medical staff, transportation, and laundry services.
Initially, the city and Genesee County were in talks with the Holiday Inn Express about using the building as a shelter for people with COVID-19 who are homeless. Those plans fell through because housing people with COVID-19 went against the hotel’s policy, according to previous reporting from The Flint Journal.
The city of Flint said in a statement to MLive/The Flint Journal that responsibility for ensuring the community is prepared to handle the COVID-19 crisis lies with the countywide Emergency Operations Center, which the city is a part of.
“We are responding proactively and continuing to push other agencies to help create solutions,” Mayor Sheldon Neeley previously said in a written statement. “We will do everything in our power to help residents get the services they need during this time of crisis."
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May 13, 2020 at 01:12AM
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Flint hotel to serve as backup emergency shelter for healthy people who are homeless - mlive.com
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