Affordable housing is one of the issues facing Gila County, and a former Globe motel promises to be part of the solution.

Through a state grant, Gila House Inc. bought the old Budget Motel on Ash Street and is preparing to renovate it – with a goal of turning the motel into affordable efficiency apartments for low income and very low income residents.

Gila House, a local nonprofit working to prevent homelessness and help domestic violence victims through temporary and long-term housing, is collaborating with the Gila County Community Services Department’s Community Action Program (CAP) on the project.

“The local need for affordable housing is extremely urgent. We have zero affordable housing projects or housing, almost, here in the Globe-Miami area; it’s very needed up in Payson,” said Gila County Community Services Director Malissa Buzan, a Gila House board member.

“We (Gila House) had the opportunity to purchase the whole Budget Motel,” said Buzan. “There was an opportunity for a grant through the State of Arizona, which was the recipient of dollars from a class action lawsuit. It wasn’t a regular grant cycle, so they put this out to nonprofits. They had to apply through the government – the community services, the county.”

On Dec. 15, 2020 the Gila County Board of Supervisors approved a $50,000 purchase order for the affordable housing project, with CAP acting as a pass-through agency to issue those funds to Gila House. That completed the disbursement of $210,000 received from Arizona Department of Economic Security Special Funds; the application for those funds was approved for fiscal year 2021 Community Services Block Grant discretionary funding.

Buzan said the old motel needs extensive renovation, and Gila House is seeking more grants to fund the work. “Those dollars paid for the property and some minor stuff, but that won’t put everything together.

“We have a little bit of money; we’re going to go out for bids in electrical, and see what kind of bids we get and how much that will cost us. Then we’re just going to move forward little by little.”

She added that the nonprofit received a $7,000 grant from Southwest Gas this month, and was working on others. “It’s a lot of work putting all these dollars together to try to help the homeless and domestic violence victims. Gila House is all about that.”

Gila House will own and operate the new housing when it is ready; their vision is to provide small, discounted efficiency apartments for the low income and very low income. It’s uncertain how many units will be created at the Budget Motel, but they plan to use two rooms to create the apartments. Income criteria have not yet been established.

“One of the reasons Gila House was ready for this – if anybody’s ever ready for such a huge project – is because we belong to what we call a continuum of care,” said Buzan. “That’s a group of agencies interested in the homeless or near homeless; those who, because of their very low income, will be thrown out on the street by any little hiccup in that income. People with SSI only get $700 a month, and so they’re usually one step from being homeless. Because we belong to the continuum, as agencies we network and talk about those we’ve been assisting or are about to be homeless.”

While the project aims to help with the county’s affordable housing issue, its work won’t be finished any time soon. “I would say we’re probably a year out. I’m hoping that we’ll have a few rooms available in a year,” said Buzan.