CDC seeks to convert Worcester hotel into 90-unit supportive housing project
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The former Quality Inn and Suites at 50 Oriol Drive in Worcester
Worcester Community Housing Resources, a community development corporation, is proposing to convert a Quality Inn and Suites at 50 Oriol Drive into 90 units of permanent supportive housing for those in need.
WCHR would partner with Eliot Community Human Services of Lexington to provide wraparound services for residents including clinical services, behavioral health, and recovery coaching.
Different from a shelter, residents would sign a lease and pay a portion of their income towards rent, according to a presentation by WCHR.
The organization hopes to secure financing by the summer 2023 and begin leasing units in 2024. The Quality Inn is still currently operating.
Other partners on the project offering technical assistance and other support are the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance of Worcester, the Worcester-based United Way of Central Massachusetts, and Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance in Boston.
The CDC reached out to abutters, various community stakeholders, and community leaders by mail, email and social media to invite them to an online community meeting held Wednesday night via Zoom.
“It went as expected with folks expressing support for the project and sympathy for the people it would serve, and some community members had concerns about the project,” said Jennifer Schanck-Bolwell, WCHR’s executive director. “There are people with long-standing frustrations in the neighborhood who project those concerns onto this project.”
Schanck-Bolwell said there is often community pushback for projects like this, but once the projects are built and up and running, those concerns fade away.
The project is across the street from a proposed 220-unit residential development called Alexan Worcester by Maple Multi-Family Development LLC, of Dallas.
WCHR’s project will be reviewed publicly by the Worcester Planning Board at its Nov. 30 meeting.
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