Pandemic homeless hotels close, sending some back to streets

By JESSE BEDAYN
Associated Press/Report for America

DENVER (AP) — Cities from Anchorage to New Orleans are shuttering their pandemic-era hotels that were used to house the homeless as funding dwindles and leases run out. In Denver, one of the last hotel shelters closed its doors Friday, pushing 138 residents out of the rooms. The Quality Inn in Denver, leased from its private owner by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, provided rooms for those over 65-years-old and people at greater risk for severe COVID-19 illness. The hotel rooms offered homeless people security, privacy, and stability. The programs, however, also sparked a national trend of states and cities purchasing hotels to convert into permanent housing.