After the pandemic swept through the world, almost every country witnessed some problematic situations. For example, America saw the threat of rising homelessness due to the short supply of affordable workforce housing and increasing rents. While this issue is widespread and needs urgent attention, one must not ignore the power of the American dream that depicts resilience and adaptability. A relevant point in this context is the idea of repurposing hotels into livable affordable units. Everyone knows how COVID-19 ripped away hotels from its busy business, bringing them on the verge of closure. Many of them couldn’t survive the storm and closed down.Â
However, some pioneers from housing markets helped figure out a solution to such dire situations. They came up with the idea of hotel conversions into affordable workforce units. Although there has been initial resistance, hotel owners eventually recognized the merit of this concept and started opening up. But the main challenge for them is the lack of housing market knowledge. That’s where one can think of experts like Galen and Maxwell Drever.
Why do housing market leaders prove helpful?
Converting hotels into housing units has massive potential. One can expect this market to be worth USD$ 25 to 30 billion in the coming five years. However, there is a need to be diligent with this process. Experts can take help from the housing- and hotel-based architects to evaluate the condition of the conversion assets. With this, they can help you understand the property’s layout, building codes, and amenities. You can have a general idea of these things. But lack of experience can prevent you from deriving practical value out of them.
On the contrary, people from the housing sector come with many years of experience and technical know-how. You can tap into their depth to pursue your goal. While it is one thing, the other aspect is creating awareness among the workforce population about such projects. Transparent communication between the target audience and solution providers can change the game. It becomes a vital area because rumors can go against these projects. That’s why investors, hotel owners, and real estate firms, along with everyone else, need to be fully aware of the social conditions of the workforce groups.
Things to consider
According to Maxwell Drever, hotel and housing codes and accessibility regulations tend to be pretty similar. However, the main challenge can be the legislation. Due to this, some non-accessible hotels can be expensive to convert into homes. Still, you can tackle this challenge without hurting your budget. But for this, you must rely on industry stalwarts.
Raising low-income housing projects can breathe fresh life into many households that cannot pay high rents or own a home. The cost of accommodation is too high for them to save any amount. Plus, lack of shelter and funds limit their growth opportunities as they cannot explore anything else. It will make them more cost-burdened. It cannot be a favorable scenario for any country. Hence, the need of the hour is to expand one’s vision and work towards solving the problem with conviction.
