Residents review options to delay hotel conversion
Thorncliffe-green view residents will meet next Tuesday to examine their options to delay the transfer of the newly purchased Quality Inn from hotel to social housing by the Calgary Drop-in Centre.
But officials with the DI hope to allay residents’ fears by building on a new relationship, educating the community about the kinds of residents who will stay at the soon-to-be-converted facility.
“We’ve known many of these people for a long time, we know their histories, we spend a tremendous amount of time with them,” said Debbie Newman, executive director of the DI.
“They are good people. They work hard at their jobs. But their jobs just don’t pay enough to maintain longterm housing for them.”
On the heels of an emotionally charged meet-and-greet at the hotel Wednesday night, which saw area residents fearing their community will be overrun with homeless people smoking crack pipes and urinating on lawns, community leaders are trying to collect more information about the future of the Quality Inn, located at McKnight Boulevard and Edmonton Trail N.E.
Community activist Tara Rindfliesch said too many residents feel the DI’s purchase of the Quality Inn has caught them off guard, and they don’t have enough information to decide whether placing the working poor into their community will benefit them.
“At this point, I’m not really sure whether I’m for or against it,” she said. “But we really need more information, and more input as to what this project is going to look like.”
Rindfliesch said one of her biggest concerns is that hotel rooms will be converted to one-room suites, with no kitchen facilities. Instead, food will be provided three times a day at a community kitchen on the main level.
“That to me looks like a shelter. I’m not sure if there will be much independence among residents there.”
Ald. Gael MacLeod said she’s working closely with the city’s planning department to see whether the DI will have to apply for a development permit to redesignate land use at the former Quality Inn site from hotel to social housing.
If that is the case, MacLeod explained, the community can appeal to the city’s subdivision and development appeal board.
Newman said she too will spend the next week working with the city’s planning department to see whether the DI will have to redesignate land use, and how long that might take.
The DI had initially hoped to move residents into the former hotel by July, but Newman expects that won’t happen until September at the earliest.
Last month, the Calgary Drop-In Centre purchased the former Quality Inn for $8 million with help from Alberta Municipal Affairs after the hotel went into receivership.
Newman has said the DI is excited to add to the city’s limited stock of affordable housing for the working poor, explaining that more than 4,000 Calgarians are now sitting on a waiting list for affordable housing,
The project, if it goes ahead, would have 20 single units rented for about $600 per month, including room and board. Administrators hope to expand to 117 units within a year.