The Red Lion Hotel Boise Downtowner has leased a portion of their hotel rooms to unhoused individuals and families with children since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing guidelines required shelters to limit capacity.
Yet City of Boise Senior Housing and Community Development Manager Maureen Brewer says this temporary housing program will begin to slowly phase out before ending next fall.
“We have shelter partners who can and will case manage household by household, and who can and will work together to keep open a reduced version of this resource until September 2025," Brewer said in a city council meeting on July 16.
Federal funds supporting the hotel shelter through the pandemic have not been renewed and the Red Lion and Interfaith Sanctuary are renegotiating their contract to stop accepting new applicants by the end of March next year and to reduce the number of rooms leased out.
The Interfaith Sanctuary is also set to open a new permanent shelter location on State Street in October 2025.
