During the pandemic, the hotel and motel industry suffered a lot due to the travel restrictions and order to stay home. These restrictions resulted in hotels experiencing drops in occupancy, and business owners suffered a lot of losses.
However, hotel owners can benefit from this situation by converting these properties into affordable workforce housing properties. Not only will this plan help hotels, but it also provides low to middle-income earners affordable housing options. Currently, the workforce is facing difficulty finding affordable housing due to increased inflation and subsequent increased costs.
Hotel rooms and suites can turn into great studio apartments that include everything a person needs for a comfortable stay, except for individual kitchens. Compared to new construction, hotels could be converted to provide longer-term housing with minimal effort while being environmentally friendly.
Affordable Workforce Housing: Every Worker’s Right
State investors and developers like Maxwell Drever encourage people to invest more in affordable housing as he believes everyone has the right to live in an affordable house. These are housing facilities for low to middle-income earners that earn 60 to 120 percent of their area median income. These residents include nurses, teachers, grocery clerks, assembly line workers, police officers, and hospital support staff.
Converting Vacant Hotels into Housing
The traveling restrictions and social distancing orders have left many hotels distressed and vacant. Many tourists have not been able to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions, impacting the economy and the hotel industry.
Economists think it is a good idea to convert them into affordable workforce housing due to the falling demand of the hotel industry. This idea can save hotels from going out of business and help people find a decent place to live while housing prices are at their peak.
Maxwell Drever believes that the government could help put this plan into motion by encouraging investors like him to invest in such projects and convert them into decent and affordable places to live. At such a time, hotel owners would be willing to sell their hotels at a bargain.
This would be an excellent chance for investors to purchase good properties at a discounted rate and turn them into affordable houses and apartments for the middle-class population. This conversion would be a more environmentally-friendly option as housing properties are not built from scratch but instead already built properties are maintained. Since no new construction is needed, no pollution will happen while providing affordable workforce housing this way.
Building new housing plots from scratch takes a lot of time and resources, such as money and a significant amount of fuel and natural resources. Economists say the best option is to reuse already-constructed buildings by converting them into housing properties for workers and families.
The Final Note
There is already a shortage of affordable housing properties in many countries. Conversion of hotels and motels into affordable housing properties for citizens would solve two problems simultaneously, proving to be a win-win solution to both problems affecting the economy.