Another Denver area hotel has been acquired by taxpayers for millions of dollars to house the homeless and provide nursing care, therapy and other amenities.
Taxpayers are forking over $9 million for the 95-bed Stay Inn hotel plus adjacent property off I-70 in the Central Park neighborhood.
That’s about $95,000 per hotel room, or one helluva down payment on 95 freaking houses.
The Denver Post credits U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette with making the purchase possible with $2 million in “federal funding,” also known as taxpayer dollars — made possible by taxpayers who work hard to put a roof over their own heads.
Taxpayer dollars intended for pandemic relief in 2021 was also used to buy the hotel from IH Holdings.
Less than two years before the purchase plans were announced, IH Holdings bought the property for $3.8 million, the Post reported.
That’s a $5 million profit.
For this.
Taxpayers bought another hotel last week with more than 200 rooms for $24 million that will be operated by a multi-million non-profit group.
Westword reports on what looks to be Denver’s commitment to getting into the slumlord business by housing nearly a thousand homeless folks:
The City of Denver has earmarked another $43.25 million to buy four more buildings, likely motels, and turn two of those into permanent supportive housing and two of them into navigation centers where people leaving encampments can be placed temporarily and connected with housing.
The abandoned hotels turned homeless ghettos will come with amazing amenities for the homeless, including free food, free health, free shelter, and in the case of the Stay Inn, free nurse care.