THE Queensland state government has acquired another inner-city hotel to transform into housing for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.
Located within walking distance of the South Bank Parklands, the former hotel will be developed into 20 two-bedroom units and 32 studio units, targeting families and pregnant women.
The new accommodation is part of the government’s record $5 billion for social and affordable housing and housing and homelessness support, the largest investment in Queensland’s history, to help deliver 13,500 homes.
“Since 2015, we have delivered thousands and thousands of homes with our Big Housing Build to deliver many more. But while we get on with our Big Build, we’ve also been buying and leasing motels, hotels and former retirement villages to help more Queenslanders into a home sooner,” said Meaghan Scanlon, housing minister.
“In particular, this place will have a huge impact for families – a number of whom may have been staying in emergency accommodation while we have been working to find them a long-term housing solution.”
Works are set to commence soon, delivering modifications to convert hotel rooms to homes, with the first households anticipated to move in over coming months.
“We will now modify the hotel, ensuring that all the suites are converted into self-contained units and appropriate supports are made available on site for those families that’ll soon be calling it home,” added Scanlon.
This comes after the government’s purchases and leases of other accommodation including two inner city hotels, and former retirement villages and aged care facilities in Clayfield, Toowoomba, Redlands and Rothwell.
Back in November, the government announced it had purchased an 84-room former Park Hotel in Spring Hill, which had been leased by the government since April 2021.
While earlier in 2023, the Queensland government purchased a 23-room hotel, with a motor inn in Hamilton also leased for youth accommodation and an apartment complex in Gladstone transformed into public housing.