Careworn Safari Motel gets new life as transitional housing

The vintage Safari Motel in downtown Las Vegas has undergone various incarnations since it was first built nearly seven decades ago, when Clark County’s population hovered around 60,000.

Long a tourist attraction, the relic of a bygone era has transformed into apartment living, been shuttered, caught fire multiple times and been labeled as a “chronic nuisance” where illegal activities abounded in recent years.

But by the end of 2022, Clark County and the U.S. Vets nonprofit hope it will be reborn as a home for those seeking transitional housing.

Walk into room No. 7 now, and you’ll see wooden floors, new appliances and modern fixtures, a tiled bath and even a circular-stone bathroom sink.

A “Zen garden” donated by a resort will rest adjacent to the recently brick-layered parking lot, adorned by a few palm trees.

Furniture orders for the roughly 20 renovated rooms began in recent days, according to the nonprofit, which teamed up with the county for a first-of-its-kind partnership.

They hope the first residents will move in before the holiday season.

Bridge housing

The Clark County-funded “BETterment Community,” approved by commissioners in the spring, will aid nearly 200 people a year, providing temporary housing, job training and “wraparound” resources to help tenants who’ve recently lost their home get back on their feet, with “not a lot of barriers.”

“BET” stands for “a bridge, employment and training program.”

Adults who have recently experienced homelessness is an underserved demographic, said Michele Fuller-Hallauer, manager of Clark County social services.

“They’re our neighbors,” she said. “It could happen to anyone, any one of us,” she said, adding that many locals are a crisis away from losing their homes.

“The second they come in, they are working with our intake specialists, they’re meeting our workforce team, they’re meeting their case managers,” said Haley Exon, project director for U.S. Vets, during a Thursday tour of the property.

The program is geared for adults, and the rooms will house singles or couples.

“We recognized that we needed something that would give them employment training, and get them back into a stable housing situation as quickly as possible,” said Fuller-Hallauer, noting that there were currently more than 4,000 vetted Clark County residents experiencing homelessness looking for a roof over their head.

Partnership born

The idea for the project emerged right before COVID-19 wreaked havoc on the valley, a pandemic that’s exacerbated the homelessness crisis, Fuller-Hallauer said.

In early 2020, she approached U.S. Vets, which specializes in transitional housing for down-on-their-luck military personnel, to brainstorm ideas and see what works and what doesn’t.

On average, vets the nonprofit helps require 72 days in transitional housing before they find employment and permanent housing.

The county said the nonprofit has about an 80 percent success rate for finding its vets permanent housing.

“How about we just do it together,” Shalimar Cabrera, executive director of U.S. Vets, said she told Fuller-Hallauer. “The veteran list is very short, the non-veteran list is getting longer.”

In May, Clark County commissioners allocated $4 million to fund the program through the end of June, with an option to extend it up to four more years.

The property, built in 1956, is being leased by its California-based owner, 2001 FREMONT LLC, which bought the motel for $950,000 in 2019, according to property records. The company is handling the renovations.

The city of Las Vegas allocated nearly $100,000 that year to help the owner fund a $440,000 renovation into an apartment complex.

The program will provide “bridge housing” for up to 90 days. Partner nonprofits and organizations will step in to provide health care, mental health services, food pantries, and legal aid. Dedicated staff will be stationed full time at the property, located at 2001 E. Fremont St., according to U.S. Vets.

“It is important for us to support programs that provide real and tested solutions to homelessness,” said Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy II, whose district encompasses Safari Motel, in a May news release.

‘So hopeful’

This is the first step, a “pilot project,” said Cabrera, which the nonprofit hopes can be replicated at other properties, like the other tattered motels that dot Fremont Street.

“We know that’s still a low number compared to the 4,000 on the wait list,” Cabrera said about the 184 people a year who will likely be housed at the Safari Motel. “But I do think that this is the starting point for some momentum to show bridge housing is really the way to do it.”

Cabrera added: “Put the right pieces in place, and hopefully the right people around these folks, and life opens up for them.”

“It’s not just a number,” Exon said. “Those are 200 lives we’re reaching.”

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @rickytwrites.