Foundation that bought Kalamazoo motel seeks donations to help reduce homelessness
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 06, 2021
The former Knights Inn hotel, at 1211 South Westnedge Ave., will soon be home to 60 affordable housing units in Kalmazoo, Michigan. The project is being called the LodgeHouse and is expected to provide long-term living solutions for some of Kalamazoo s homeless population. (Photo provided by the LIFT Foundation)
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KALAMAZOO, MI The former Knights Inn motel in Kalamazoo has already began its transition to a home for those facing homelessness in the community.
Since the LIFT Foundation purchased the site in January, the hotel now officially being called LodgeHouse has provided a temporary home to more than 60 residents who had been facing homelessness.
Grand Rapids Business Journal
Courtesy LIFT Foundation
The LIFT Foundation recently received a grant from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation to help the organization cover the cost of housing individuals experiencing homelessness this winter.
LIFT a Kalamazoo-based nonprofit housing provider said it received a grant of an undisclosed amount from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation to address homelessness in Kalamazoo.
The grant will specifically assist the LIFT Foundation in housing those without homes in a local motel this winter and spring ahead of LIFT’s planned project to convert the motel into 60 affordable studio apartments for permanent housing.
Lisa Willcutt
Brad Lander, a New York City Council member and candidate in the upcoming election for city comptroller, is endorsing a plan to solve the city’s housing challenges through a mass program of social housing, according to a report in Bloomberg CityLab. The plan calls for the city to invest billions of dollars in buying and preserving thousands of housing units and making them “democratically owned, permanently affordable” and “removed from for-profit speculation,” according to the report. Lander calls for the city to acquire 15,000 units a year, while investing more in public housing, resident-owned co-ops, mutual housing associations, and community land trusts, the story says. In all, the plan calls for the city to build 154,000 new units and preserve 388,000 more, according to the story.
Kalamazoo Approves New Affordable Housing for Homeless Population
The homeless population has long been an issue discussed in, not just Kalamazoo, but cities all across the country. Unfortunately, in my personal experience, when people talk about the homeless issue they often times seem to forget that these are people who need help, not just a problem to be tossed aside to be dealt with at a later time. But, Kalamazoo is taking steps to help he homeless population with potential affordable housing.
According to WWMT News Channel 3, the Knights Inn Motel on Westnedge Avenue has been purchased by the LIFT foundation to be transformed into affordable housing with a focus on helping the homeless population. Two loans were approved this past Tuesday by the Kalamazoo City Commissioners which total $250,000 and will go towards renovating the motel.