City‑Bought Motels Fail as Housing

Cities sometimes buy motels to quickly create housing for people experiencing homelessness, then hand them to nonprofits with little real‑estate or development expertise. Those projects can stall, be stripped or fenced off, and consume public loans and philanthropic grants without delivering usable housing or services. — Calls attention to a repeatable policy failure that wastes public funds and worsens neighborhood conditions, prompting debates about municipal acquisition strategies, nonprofit capacity, and oversight for homelessness programs.