From a Motel 6 to affordable housing, all 60 units are now full at Paso Robles complex

When Molly Avelar first moved into her apartment in March 2021, she said she barely knew who she was.

Avelar was one of the first people to move into a new affordable housing development in Paso Robles, which at the time was in the process of being converted from a Motel 6 at 1134 Black Oak Drive by its new owners, the Housing Authority of City of San Luis Obispo.

Prior to moving in, Avelar was homeless, and had suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was hit by a car, causing memory loss.

“That was one of the hardest things — looking at yourself and not remembering you were old, and then looking at yourself and seeing this old woman staring back at you,” Avelar said.

But after living in the same place for more than two years, Avelar said her memory has begun to recover, and as the development has grown, so has she, she said.

Avelar’s list of neighbors has also grown over those two years as the project reached completion, from just a handful at first to all 60 of the affordable housing development’s rooms being filled by the official grand opening on Tuesday.

The project is the culmination of three years of work by HASLO, the El Camino Homeless Organization and People’s Self-Help Housing, all made possible by state Project Homekey funding, HASLO executive director Scott Collins said at the celebration.

“(Homelessness is) a challenge that can seem insurmountable, leading many of us, including myself at times, to feel powerless in the face of this societal issue,” Collins said. “However, I respectfully raise a counterpoint to that mindset. Before you today stands a tangible example of how together, all of us here can change the course of homelessness.”

How does the Homekey development work?

Paso Homekey was funded by a $12.9 million grant from the state Department of Housing and Community development, along with $8.2 million in funding from county, state and federal governments, Collins said.

HASLO first received the Homekey grant in October 2020 and purchased the building soon after.

The non-Homekey funding was then used by HASLO affiliate San Luis Obispo Nonprofit Housing Corp. and People’s Self-Help Housing to renovate the old motel, making infrastructure, aesthetic and quality-of-life upgrades that turned the rooms into studio apartments, while adding furnishings such as kitchenettes to create 60 permanent supportive housing units, Collins said.

Those 60 studios are deed-restricted as affordable units for the next 55 years and are supported by project-based vouchers from HASLO, meaning residents will only pay 30% of their income in rent.

For Avelar, who works in San Luis Obispo in retail, that rent cap was a “godsend,” she said.

“I would not be able to afford a studio apartment for what I pay here,” Avelar said.

The development’s other 28 rooms are leased to ECHO as an emergency shelter, capable of offering short-term space to around 100 homeless individuals and families, Collins said.

Like ECHO’s other shelter facilities in Paso Robles and Atascadero, these shelter beds work on a 90-day basis, meaning residents can stay for 90 days and receive case management instead of the beds serving whoever arrives first each night, he said.

The shelter space, marked by red doors, occupies around one and a half of the property’s four buildings, while the permanent units, marked by blue doors, take up the rest.

Onsite ECHO caseworkers can help permanent and emergency shelter residents work toward goals such as housing and jobs, Collins said.

By offering temporary shelter and permanent supportive units with onsite case managers, Collins said the Paso Homekey complex can “bridge the gap” between homelessness, shelters and permanent housing.

Local, state government officials praise project

Collins said the three years between the initial purchase of the property and the grand opening festivities far outpaced the “glacial speed” of housing development in California, largely because it could make use of an underutilized space.

“We transformed a tired, dilapidated motel into a facility that serves a much higher purpose,” Collins said.

State and local elected officials praised the project for its unique merging of short- and long-term housing, including San Luis Obispo County Supervisor John Peschong, newly appointed Paso Robles Mayor John Hamon, Atascadero Mayor Pro Tempore Susan Funk and representatives of State Sen. John Laird and State Assemblymember Dawn Addis.

Hamon said the complex can create a pathway from homelessness to permanent housing.

“This facility is like a lifeboat to North County residents who are homeless and also at risk of losing their homes,” Hamon said.

Funk said the project reflects collaboration across different areas and housing organizations, and praised its use of the 90-day shelter model.

“What we’re seeing is that the 90-day model that ECHO pioneered in this county is really successful in helping people stabilize their lives and work through a structured process to get back into permanent housing,” Funk told The Tribune.

Avelar said her new home will give her the space to continue reconnecting with the parts of herself she lost to homelessness and injury.

“I’ve been here since the beginning, and I’ve seen it change and grow,” Avelar said. “You have to want it, you have to want to change your life. If you want to change your life, it’s possible.”