Housing: From Hotel to Housing—The Making of Brockton’s Roadway Apartment (Virtual)

In 2022, Father Bill’s & MainSpring (FBMS) opened the Roadway Apartments in Brockton, the first-in-the-state, hotel-to-housing project to assist homeless individuals. The property is now home to 69 formerly homeless individuals where the tenants have access to case managers to help them become more self-sufficient.

In June 2020 FBMS began leasing the underutilized Rodeway Inn hotel as a satellite shelter, allowing their Brockton shelter guests to safely social distance during the COVID-19 crisis. In order to avoid returning guests to an overcrowded shelter system, FBMS decided to purchase the hotel and convert the underutilized property into efficiency-style apartments, called the Roadway Apartments.

FBMS selected Elton + Hampton Architects/Placetailor as the project’s architect. Renovations, which began in Fall 2021, included adding kitchenettes to all rooms, which already had their own private bathrooms, and constructing a common laundry room and electrical, mechanical and life safety systems. Additional site improvements include an outdoor courtyard, as well as building exterior and landscape upgrades. The project cost $10.3 million, equating to less than $150,000 per unit. The project was funded by both public and private sources including Department of Housing and Community Development, Executive Office of Health and Arbella Insurance Foundation and Beth Israel Lahey Health.