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Homeless shelter to open at old Crescent Palms Motel

"We will provide shelter, emergency shelter for 30 - 45 days and help them to find more permanent residences."

A new shelter at the site of the old Crescent Palms Motel on Martin Luther King Blvd. for homeless women and kids is set to open its doors next month.

Ahead of the grand opening, volunteers with the group Hotel Hope were out Saturday morning making sure the property can properly house more than 20 homeless women and child. Bryon Chambers is one of the several volunteers helping get the building ready. He knows first-hand what it is like to be uncertain of where you are going to live.

“It doesn’t take much to fall below that line to where you are out on the street,” said Chambers. “I grew up in New Orleans, actually with a single mom as a kid. We spent many times, I am sure I didn’t realize it at the time, but we were very close to that line.”

The purchase of the $1.4 million motel came after a donation to Hotel Hope from a private donor named Phyllis M. Taylor. The mission now is to use the 24-room, 6,500 square foot motel to help get homeless women and kids get back on their feet.

“We will provide shelter, emergency shelter for 30 - 45 days and help them to find more permanent residences,” said Sister Mary Lou Specha with Hotel Hope.

Organizers say this facility helps homeless families by allowing them to start the healing process as soon as they walk in the doors.

“Many of our moms have lived in pretty serious chaotic situations,” said Specha. “When they are here what we really try to do is stabilize the family out of the crisis.”

According to Hotel Hope, the issue of homelessness is only made worse by the on-going nationwide problem of affordable housing. This is one of the reasons why the former owner of the motel was so happy when Hotel Hope got the property.

“We had a couple of other offers from some other investors and I said we extended the dates again for Hotel Hope and then it eventually worked out for Hotel Hope so we are very happy,” said Michael Dezura with Crescent Palms Motel.

Hotel Hope on MLK is expected officially open in mid to late September. It will open with five rooms in phase one. Officials will continue to increase the capacity by five rooms each quarter.

Paul Dudley can be reached at pdudley@wwltv.com.

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