Home Antioch Antioch Councilmembers Motts, Thorpe to Propose Leasing Motel for Homeless

Antioch Councilmembers Motts, Thorpe to Propose Leasing Motel for Homeless

by ECT
Antioch Homeless Hotel

On Tuesday, Antioch Mayor Pro Tem Joy Motts and Council member Lamar Thorpe announced they are bringing a proposal to the Antioch City Council on July 28 to lease the Antioch Executive Inn to help reduce homelessness in the city.

Motts, who serves with Thorpe on the Transitional Housing Ad-Hoc Committee, stated at the press conference they began this process two-years ago and called the homeless issue “very complex” and impacts many people.

“I am so thankful for the owners of the Executive Inn for opening this up for this place up for this proposal for consideration for housing our homeless here. This is transitional housing, only temporary with wrap around services with many agencies,” stated Motts who hopes this help get them into more permanent housing.

Thorpe stated they were lucky to have a local business owner willing to work with the city on transitional housing.

“This is a call not only us as a city, but this is a call to action for all of East Contra Costa County cities. We can’t continue to expect the county to do all of this work. So I hope our work here today serves as an example to Pittsburg, Oakley and Brentwood that you have to join us in this effort to ensure that we get people off of the streets and that we are working in a collaborative manner,” stated Thorpe.

After several speakers, Thorpe stated they would be bringing this proposal to the city council on July 28.

The proposal is for the city council to give direction to the city manager to begin negotiations to work out a long-term lease with the motel to house the homeless—this would be for the entire 32-room facility and could potentially be a location to place the homeless trailers.

“This is a big deal in Antioch, this is a huge deal,” stated Thorpe. “This is not some small thing. We are talking about the entire facility plus the land.”

Thorpe stated the cost would be around $1 million dollars which he said was “nothing” compared to what they spend on chasing people from camp to camp around the city using Antioch Police Department officers.

“The abatement from the community engagement team, which is two police officers, two highly paid police officers to focus on homeless in the community. Its not working. So we are proposing this solution and we are asking for the community support to get this through the council,” stated Thorpe.

While the county voucher program was good for 16-days, Thorpe stated he did not want to get ahead of services providers, but someone could stay in the motel for a week or up to 6-months so it varies on a case-by-case basis.

Back on July 1, Governor Gavin Newsom visited the city of Pittsburg where they have a Project Roomkey site. During that press conference, he announced “HomeKey”

Meanwhile, Contra Costa County Board of Supervisor John Gioia stated since the State launched Project Roomkey in April, Contra Costa County  has successfully relocated hundreds of individuals from shelters and encampments to motels and hotels. The program provides funding for these relocations. This includes residents of the Richmond Rescue Mission, and the County shelters in North Richmond and Concord.

The County is leasing 574 hotel and motel rooms to provide safer housing for homeless individuals. Meals are provided. The rooms are at 96% capacity.

Editors Note: the wind obstructed sound during the Press Conference for many of the speakers. Will add in comments should a formal press releases or statements be sent to us.

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19 comments

Simonpure Jul 14, 2020 - 2:36 pm

That place is a stinking rotten dirty place to begin with. I wouldn’t let my dog stay there. Nasty!!!

mike g Jul 14, 2020 - 3:34 pm

I wonder how much of the $1MM is their money? NOTTA. Throwing down a rat hole, incredibly irresponsible.

Jaime Jul 14, 2020 - 8:55 pm

That is our money they are spending Mike!

Patricia Jens Jul 14, 2020 - 4:19 pm

NOOOOOOOO! TOTAL INSANITY! This has to be fought tooth-and-nail. What idiot owns this shithole to start with. It’s presence is lowering real estate values! Someone I met, who made the mistake of staying there, said it’s a HOOKER motel and he and his family had their door banged on all hours of the night, not getting any sleep. Thinking maybe it was someone warning of a fire, they opened the door to find an ugly, fat hooker asking, “Do you want to party?” Hysterical! They checked out the next day and booked rooms at the Hampton Inn in Pittsburg, which they should have done in the first place.

New Counsel and Mayor in November Jul 14, 2020 - 4:31 pm

Wow, Motts and Thorpe stated this has been in the making for over 2 years! It will be another 2 yrs for them to get off their rear ends to actually do something. But they won’t be in office that long. Antioch citizens are fed up with this Mayor and counsel for dragging their feet on everything that’s important to they’re citizens. This model isn’t going to help the real problems of these homeless, I’m talking ther ones that are making camps at the railroad tracks and shopping centers setting fires, stealing, drug dealing and leaving their garbage, syringes, junk cars, shopping carts, and human feces all around our homes. These counsel member don’t have a clue what we go through night after night, being awakened from these vagrants yelling, fighting, breaking into our cars and now even shooting guns. Motts and Thorpe should come to where we live and see what we go through but they won’t even show their faces to the citizens that made the big mistake of putting them into office as well as the other members and mayor. We need a big change in our city government because it’s now a slum town and getting more dangerous by the day. New faces in Nov! People that aren’t afraid to put the adult underwear on and do what’s right for Antioch!

Monica Jul 15, 2020 - 4:44 pm

The RAILROAD people should kick all those homeless off their properties. They’ve set fires there with their paper garbage catching fire and blowing into the adjoining neighborhoods. Most of those homeless are NOT Antioch people. They never lived here. They were brought in from elsewhere and dumped here. We have to stop that. Send them back. If they say they are from Antioch, make them show you where they lived here. Which house? Which apartment? We can get volunteers to check this out. Why are we mandated to use our tax dollars to pay for these bums? Return them to their cities and/or states! Let those municipaities and states pay for their keep.

Julio Jul 14, 2020 - 5:53 pm

No way.

Marty Fernandez Jul 14, 2020 - 7:36 pm

I think Motts and Thorpe should stay there a month and then decide. When we were checking this place out because of the new school it was terrifying.

Frank Jul 14, 2020 - 9:27 pm

This has got to be the most idiotic idea the council has ever come up with. There’s a major problems in this area already and they plan on compounding the problems. Let’s not forget about the school that is right around the corner. Motel 6 in Pittsburg sets by itself whereas there are multiple neighborhoods all around this dive. So I will say Hell No!!!

Grace Wilson Jul 15, 2020 - 4:48 pm

Motel 6 in Pittsburg does not sit by itself. It is surrounded by a variety of stores and restaurants with residential neighborhoods within walking distance.

Joe Sal Jul 15, 2020 - 1:25 am

No Tax payer money to be used Period. Politicians have created this homeless mess and now they want tax’s payers to bail them out. 100% NO

Noelle Balzac Jul 21, 2020 - 2:23 am

This homeless mess was partially created by greedy real estate agents and jerks like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (Bozo) who destroyed our country’s retail industry.

LoveableCurmudgeon Jul 15, 2020 - 4:21 am

Not one of my fellow commenters has a solution to the problem, other than MAKE THEM MOVE OUT OF HERE. Which is fine, except that they don’t. So what is the solution? The Executive Inn is not a place any sane person will stay in and is probably empty most nights, except for people with vouchers. So why not do something for everybody? The motel owner gets some money, the city saves money on homeless outreach, and we are spared the grotesque vision of encampments that blight almost every town in the Bay Area. Kudos to Thorpe and Mott for trying to come up with a solution

Joe Sal Jul 16, 2020 - 12:39 pm

Here is a solution! Enforce the law and require these homeless drug addict/alcoholics to get into treatment at a lock down facility. Plenty of room in Prison because for the last 15 years California has dumb down drug laws and let out offenders; which is a direct result of this homeless transient drug fueled addicts.

Now we should understand that there is a big difference between a mother with children, being homeless and homeless transients who are drug and alcoholic fueled addicts.

The solution is relatively simple 1) Enforce the law 2) Require treatment in a locked facility 3) If you have room in your home; make a sleeping space available at your home. 4) Where is there family?

California not enforcing drug laws and requiring the court to force treatment; has also lead to the alleged mental heath crisis. Any normal person high on Methamphetamine for day on end will display mental health issues.

However most of you voted for the politicians that invented this crisis!

Giovanna Jul 21, 2020 - 2:27 am

Making them move out of here IS a solution. Why should California’s taxpayers foot the bill for these bums? Why are we letting the states they are from pay for them?

Frank Jul 15, 2020 - 7:44 am

Let’s not forget that there is another motel across the street, look for the council to do the same with that one. Everyone needs to send all council and city manager an email and show your disgust for this action.

Robert C. Jul 15, 2020 - 1:59 pm

The $1m is “nothing” huh? Wow.

Ron Nichols Jul 16, 2020 - 8:00 am

The concern I have is the manner in which comments are made by elected officials that could have very little basis in fact. An example is this –

“Thorpe stated the cost would be around $1 million dollars which he said was “nothing” compared to what they spend on chasing people from camp to camp around the city using Antioch Police Department officers.”

What is the cost of the current manner in which this is being handled? I’m not suggesting it is effective but a statement such as this infers that it is much greater than one million dollars proposed for this effort. While one million dollars may be trivial to the Federal deficit it is not trivial to an impoverished city in the Covid-era or unemployment and shuttered businesses. So I would simply ask for evidence of actual cost and not anecdotal comments or hyperbole to support one’s position, a position to which individuals have been entrusted with by the voters.

Jg Jul 21, 2020 - 12:43 pm

Heck, homeless can’t even keep their areas of encampment clean with all the time they have doing nothing. I can imagine how they will destroy a motel. Previous commenters stated separate the true needy from the drug and mental people. The drug and mental need to be institutionalized until cured or never. The kind of money Calif tax dollars are throwing at this issue surely could put the drug and mental people in an institution. That’s how it use to be done before they closed them down. Reopen them now and start making progress on the issue. These leaders just keep throwing our hard earned cash in every direction hoping for a miracle.

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