As temperatures fall and the need for emergency shelter rises, the new owner of the former Metro Inn Motel in south Minneapolis hopes to provide 38 housing units for permanent tenants by January.
Agate Housing and Services, a nonprofit dedicated to ending homelessness, announced its purchase of the former motel in early November. Since then, Agate staffers have been working to secure a city rental license and prepare the motel for tenants before the coldest part of winter arrives.
Anna Cisewski, Agate Housing and Services’ communications manager, said Hennepin County purchased the motel site in 2020 and used it as an emergency shelter during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the middle of last year, she said, the motel has sat vacant.
Hennepin County also bought four other sites for use as emergency shelters, intending to convert them into affordable housing.
Agate Housing and Services bought the former motel site from Hennepin County with a $900,000 forgivable loan on a 30-year fixed term, contingent on it providing “deeply affordable housing” over that period.
“When this opportunity came up from the county, we knew we couldn’t pass it up, because there are people who are going to live outside this winter,” Cisewski said. “We don’t have [enough] shelter beds in Hennepin County, and we don’t have the affordable housing units in Hennepin County, and so anything we can do to move more of our neighbors inside, we will do that.”
The former motel is the third affordable housing residential building owned and managed by Agate Housing and Services, bringing the total number of beds to 99. The nonprofit, formed in 2021 by the merger of the House of Charity and St. Stephen’s Services, also operates two emergency shelters, which provide beds for up to 95 individuals a night. The agency’s first two residential buildings and its shelters are all in downtown Minneapolis.
Agate Housing and Services received funding and a subsidy to keep rents below 30 percent of the area’s median income, which is about $26,000 a year. Monthly rent at the former motel is expected to be around $450 to $550. Utilities such as wifi and heat are included.
About 200 people stay at Hennepin County shelters every night because of the shortage of homes available to rent below the 30 percent median income, said Julia Welle Ayres, Hennepin County’s director of housing development and finance.
“These folks have income, but their only option for a place to be is a shelter, because we don’t have housing that is that affordable,” Welle Ayres said. Some in that group don’t rely on supportive services and income subsidies such as Section 8, so they are turned away from those housing options as well, she added.
“We wanted to provide deeply affordable housing for this group to get them out of shelters, and other unstable housing situations, so that our shelter system would have more capacity to serve the needs of people who currently aren’t able to access shelter,” she said.
The former motel will provide 38 single-occupancy carpeted rooms. Each has a bathroom, closet, television, bed, chair, small table, and dresser. The main building will be a community space and shared laundry, with two commercial-size dryers and washers, a kitchen and a common area. There will also be an on-site manager.
Most of the updates are finished, although the washers and dryers are still on the way, said Sarah Byers, Agate’s community manager. Byers will handle the property upkeep and manage staff at the site.
“We can offer [residents] services, but they don’t have to have them,” Byers said. “This will be permanent housing for many people, so it’s not something that’s meant to be a placeholder.”
“This will be permanent housing for many people, so it’s not something that’s meant to be a placeholder.”
—Sarah Byers of Agate Housing and Services
The furniture came from Hennepin County when it operated the motel as a shelter, Cisewski said in an email. She added that Agate staff are working to expedit the rental license process.
“We have complete ownership over the facility and any programs we run in it,” Cisewski said. “It came at pretty much no cost to us, just with the stipulation that these units stay as deeply affordable housing for our community.”
The location of the site was appealing to Agate, she said. The former motel is on Lyndale Avenue, right at a bus stop and near a Walgreens.
A church welcomes the new venture
A couple of blocks away is Richfield United Methodist Church, whose congregants made welcome kits for the new tenants. The kits include bedding, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and more. About 40 people worked to pack the kits, said the Rev. Nate Melcher, the church’s senior pastor.
“Our mission is to build a world in which all may live in faith, justice, and joy,” he said. “There are already so many challenging issues about justice regarding affordable housing, that if we are not participating in that, then we’re not helping build justice.”
“There are already so many challenging issues about justice regarding affordable housing, that if we are not participating in that, then we’re not helping build justice.”
—The Rev. Nate Melcher of Richfield United Methodist Church
The church used donations and profits from its thrift store, which closed in 2020, to purchase items for the welcome kits. The total cost of making the welcome kits was about $3,000, said the Rev. Hope Hutchison, United Methodist’s director of children, youth and families, and outreach.
Hutchinson and Melcher said they’re excited about creating a positive lasting relationship with the new owner and tenants.
When the facility was operating as a *motel, there was some “inappropriate behavior” by guests coming into the church, which prompted it to amp up security protocols, Melcher said.
“I think there always were some concerns when there was someone who we could see had come from the motel into the building,” Hutchison said. “I would of course not have the same level of concern with someone from affordable housing.”
The waiting list already has three people, Byers said. New tenants will be referred to Agate from street outreach providers or shelter providers, but people who are interested may reach out to Agate directly.
“We hope that through this shared community space, you have your own private space, but also a place to be in community with your neighbors and folks who’ve shared those experiences,” said Elizabeth Marchart, Agate’s director of contracts and compliance. “[And] that it can create a lot of stability and support for people that they may not have in just any apartment in the community.”
*CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated how the motel was being used when Richfield United Methodist Church increased security.
