A report on a difficult deadline in the Hotel Intervention Program
The hotel that’s closing is the Lodge. Actually it’s a motel, a former Knights Inn on Westnedge Avenue that’s recently been home to dozens of people. Once closed, Kalamazoo’s LIFT Foundation, which recently bought the building, will set to work transforming it into 60 affordable units, to be known as the LodgeHouse.
That’s great news for a city in need of more affordable housing. But it also means the current residents need to leave. People like Terry Harkness.
“I’m overwhelmed”
Harkness, who’s 57, sits in his room on the second floor of the Lodge. He taps a pack of cigarettes on a table as he recalls an encounter a few months ago with a couple of social workers.