The historic Stage Coach Motor Inn in Santa Fe, N.M., reopened Tuesday as apartments for low-income or special needs residents, reported KOB-TV in Albuquerque.
The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper also had some details about the Route 66 motel’s adaptive reuse:
The Housing Trust of Santa Fe purchased the land where the old motel sat and began construction on the 60 new apartments in 2012. Despite some weather-related setbacks, every apartment has been leased to tenants who qualify for the complex’s affordable housing provision and some moved in as early as mid-May. […]
To be eligible to live in the new apartments, tenants must earn no more than 60 percent of Santa Fe’s median income — $62,000 for a family of four. According to Sharron Welsh, the Housing Trust’s executive director, on average, the tenants make around 50 percent of median area income.
Welsh’s organization worked in partnership with UnitedHealth Group and Enterprise Community Partners to secure funding for the project, which cost about $12 million. […]
In addition to the apartments providing exclusively affordable housing — with rents ranging from $260 to $853 per month — a quarter of the apartments are reserved for those who are emerging from homelessness or who have special needs. Lifelink, working with shelters around town and other organizations, helped find these tenants, who will receive ongoing case management from their referring organizations.
(Photo of the Stage Coach Inn Apartments ribbon-cutting courtesy of UnitedHealth)