ESCONDIDO – Interfaith Community Services announced plans to purchase a nearby motel and convert it into a recuperative care center and temporary housing facility for individuals experiencing homelessness.
The nonprofit organization, headquartered in Escondido, is in escrow to purchase America’s Best Value Inn & Suites at 555 N. Centre City Parkway.
Interfaith said that more than 50 beds will be used for recuperative care for homeless individuals who are discharged out of hospitals and don’t have homes to recover in. Interfaith will provide them with a space to heal and then work to get them into housing of their own.
Another roughly 60 beds will be used for graduate/temporary accommodations for people who have completed a shelter stay or a treatment program or recuperative care and are still seeking permanent housing of their own.
CEO Greg Anglea told The Coast News that they are scheduled to close escrow on Oct. 12 and will begin operating the temporary housing portion sometime in October.
Simultaneously, they will begin renovations for the recuperative care center and hope to complete those in late 2020 or early 2021.
Interfaith currently has a 32-bed recuperative care program at its Hawthorne Veteran and Family Resource Center in Escondido, but Anglea said there is a growing need for more.
“There are more healthcare partners who’d like to be able to send people to us who need recuperative care, but our Hawthorne center is full,” Anglea said. “Recuperative care works. In our recuperative care program, more than 75% of our clients not only stabilize the health condition that landed them in the hospital, but they also address and end their underlying homelessness and move into some sort of stable housing.”
The cost of the purchase and renovations will be $10.1 million. In 2019, the county Board of Supervisors approved a $6 million capital grant for Interfaith’s recuperative care program, and Anglea said they plan to raise the rest of the funds.
“We’re really excited to be able to help more people recover from illness and help people overcome homelessness, and this new campus will be a really great stepping stone for a lot of people,” Anglea said. “This is a great opportunity for people who want to be a part of this work to help with a contribution to support this new place of healing and restoration.”
