Over two dozen people who were living in one of Tucson’s largest encampments will soon move into a renovated hotel.
The City of Tucson officially opened the Amazon Motel public housing project on Tuesday. 30 units of permanent supportive housing have already been filled with people who had been living in the 100 Acre Wood Bike Park on Golf Links and Aviation Parkway.
“There's going to be 30 incredibly appreciative individuals that will find this place their home, that will make friends and that will find a connection to services that they need to thrive into the future,” Mayor Regina Romero said.
The city bought the property on Miracle Mile in April 2023, and it was initially used as a low-barrier shelter for 140 people during renovations. 86 of them found permanent housing, said Romero.
Lois Hockersmith with Old Pueblo Community Services is the onsite case manager. She said residents are evaluated based on need, and the Amazon Motel in particular will house chronically homeless, meaning they have been on the streets for at least a year.
Many living in the 100 Acre Wood also face substance abuse and mental health problems.
“People are tired of being out there, and so I think that gives us an advantage in our positions, because it's really deplorable conditions out there,” she said. “It's different than a lot of the other encampments we worked. It's just so large, but it's organized in there.”
Supportive housing offers its residents access to services, according to the Housing First model. Hockersmith said she will be able to provide onsite life skills to residents, and referrals to mental health or addiction treatment.
The site is also a block away from Pima County’s Northwest Service center, which offers job training and health clinic services.
While Amazon Motel is supportive housing, the city is also trying to address a shortage of low-barrier shelter, or designated safe areas that often don’t have requirements like sobriety to stay there.
Some residents in the Sugar Hill neighborhood are feeling blindsided after the city announced it would open a safe sleeping site called STAR Village that will sleep 25 women and nonbinary people starting in a few weeks.
City councilman Kevin Dahl emphasized STAR village is a pilot program, and said there is always difficulties balancing different public interests when it comes to the housing crisis.
“We get criticized for almost everything we do, and we're getting criticized by some of the same people who said, ‘help get people off the streets,’” he said. “There's a choice. We can have homeless people living in your alleys, in your parks, on the street, or we can start providing places where people can start picking themselves up and getting into real housing. And I hope STAR village works really well. I'm listening to all the concerns that people have expressed, and I believe that we will be putting in place systems to mitigate those.”
The city will eventually start the motel’s second phase of development that will bring an additional 59 units to the property. The complex will be renamed Amazon Flats upon its completion.
