Homeless Heroes seeking to purchase area hotel to house veterans

Just a year after having a location fall through for its transitional housing for veterans, Homeless Heroes is now close to securing a location right across from the Thomas E Creek Amarillo Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Amarillo Boulevard.

In January of last year, the Potter County Commissioners' Court agreed to donate about 10 acres of land in the Willow Creek Area to the president and founder of Homeless Heroes to create a tiny home community for veterans. Once this was approved, residents of the area complained about the possible effects on their neighborhood, citing a lack of infrastructure, safety concerns, property value loss, and its distance from veteran services. After much-heated debate, the issue was brought back before the court.

At the next meeting, commissioners John Coffee and H.R. Kelly voted to repeal the land donation, but a 3-2 vote upheld the previous decision. Once the court upheld the donation, Coffee strongly urged Tiffaney Belflower to decline the offer of land but encouraged people to help make this happen to support homeless veterans.

So, after a year of searching for a new home to make her project happen, Belflower said that she got the idea for the location after driving by daily and not seeing many people at the Astro Hotel. She said she thought it might not still be in operation, seeing that there were not any cars parked outside of it. Belflower then inquired about the property so a real estate agent could possibly purchase it, with the owner being very receptive to the idea.

“We are currently in a contract to purchase the Astro Hotel, which is directly across from the VA, which is a phenomenal location to support the veterans we will house,” Belflower said. We are about halfway to our fundraising goal to purchase the property, with just over a month to go.”

Belflower has planned for over eight years to try to make her vision of creating housing for homeless veterans a reality, and she sees this property as a perfect location to provide transitional shelter and resources to those who require it. The current plan is to be able to convert the hotel into 14 one-bedroom apartments for veterans, with the possibility of more.

“We had to adjust our vision of a tiny home community to this because finding a location that makes sense was always a challenge," she said. “With all the adversity through the Willow Creek Plan landed a lot of opportunities to inform the community what we wanted to accomplish. By going with an existing building, we can make this happen without all the challenges that the Willow Creek project would have presented financially and infrastructure-wise.”

All rooms will be one bedroom, one bath, and HUD compliant, with a community center in the middle of the apartments, with offices to bring in resources and a communal area for group gatherings. The goal for Homeless Heroes is to find resources for finding employment and permanent housing for its occupants. It hopes to have veterans living in the community for about 12 to 24 months, with an eye toward a permanent solution.

With this project, Homeless Heroes is looking for building partners and sponsorships for the building that will sponsor rooms individually.

“At Willow Creek, we had respondents say we do not want it in our backyard, put it in yours, and our new site is about five blocks from where I live,” Belflower said. “At our new location, we have gotten a lot of positive responses from the community, with only one person expressing dissatisfaction with our new location. Everybody is supportive, and this location is ideal since it was an existing building.”

While the motel was not actively for sale, Belflower said they truly supported the idea after speaking with the owner.

“They are excited to be a part of making this happen. It was truly a God thing,” Belflower added.

Now, Belflower and her organization's biggest challenge is raising the rest of the funding needed to close the deal on the Astro Motel.

“We have such a short window to be able to do it, but we are working on different fundraisers and other organizations to get this done,” she said. “We have a lot of people pledging support to help, but right now, we need to raise another $270,000 to make this dream a reality to help these veterans.”

Belflower emphasizes that this is all about the veterans and creating a space for them to receive the required services.

At Sunday’s Sod Poodles game, Homeless Heroes will be spotlighted, with Belflower showing her mettle, throwing out the first pitch to raise awareness for the organization. There will also be a drive-thru fundraiser at the Astro Hotel located at 5703 West Amarillo Blvd. Friday that will allow people to see the site and enjoy local food trucks as they help the organization.

Belflower said that she was inspired to start her organization by some of her family members' service and seeing veterans homeless, which significantly impacted her desire to be a part of a solution for the problem.

“Our mission is to create a housing first philosophy-based solution to end literal homelessness for area veterans that is strategically based and built around camaraderie and hope to impact the vibrant tapestry of the Amarillo community significantly,” Belflower said. “We want to work with everybody to make this happen for those that served this country. We will work with every entity to get roofs for these people."

To learn more about the organization or donate, go to https://www.facebook.com/homelessheroesofamarillo.

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Homeless Heroes seeking to purchase area hotel to house veterans