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zack darrah

Flanked by City officials, Zack Darrah, CEO of the Poverello House, speaks at a news conference Tuesday announcing Project Off-Ramp Phase 2.

published on March 21, 2023 - 2:10 PM
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The City of Fresno is promising to bring four new hotel acquisitions online for homeless housing within 100 days as part of phase 2 of Project Off-Ramp.

Plans call for providing shelter to more than 350 people by summer — a goal to be accomplished through the city’s existing motel-turned-shelter operations on Parkway Drive and the acquisition of additional motels.

The newest project opening this week is The Villa — 52 units on Parkway Drive. On the same street is The Parkway, which includes 65 units scheduled for completion by May 31.

Two more unnamed hotel acquisitions in District 4 and 6 — away from the core location for homeless services in District 3 around Downtown Fresno — will add an additional 167 units of housing.

Mayor Jerry Dyer is hopeful Phase 2 of Project Off-Ramp will be as effective as the first phase, which kicked off in January 2021 and initially helped transition 650 unhoused people off Fresno’s freeway embankments and canal banks. Some 80% of those assisted accepted shelter in motels purchased by the City.

Acquiring the properties has been a challenge, Dyer said. The Villa sold for $2.43 million in January 2022. The Parkway project was made possible through a $13.4 million award from the state’s HomeKey 2.0 program in May 2022. About $10 million was earmarked for capital costs and $3.4 million for operations at The Parkway.

“Once we got in the business of acquiring hotels, the price of hotels went up dramatically,” Dyer said at a news conference Tuesday.

Since the launch of Project Off-Ramp, the City has provided shelter for more than 1,700 people. 


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