Historic Detroit hotel transformed into affordable housing in Midtown

DETROIT (FOX 2) - It was a hotel, then a homeless shelter - and now apartments that are strictly affordable housing - and it's all thanks to a Metro Detroit architecture firm.

Jim Pappas is president of Fusco, Shaffer, and Pappas Architects and Planners. He and his firm recently renovated the Woodward building in Midtown, built in 1924.

"It was a residential hotel - built in '24 and stayed that way for many years," he said. "Like this plaster - this is 100 years old. What you see here, is the original."

The cost was $17 million.

"It's expensive to save some of these old buildings, but you're losing Detroit - you know, you're losing these amazing structures that are all over the City of Detroit that make it unique," Pappas said. "Do it right and save these buildings."

But preserving the building was only part of the process - preserving families was far more important. You see it was a hotel. The former hotel turned homeless shelter has now been transformed.

The Coalition On Temporary Shelter - or COTS - has turned it into 56 units of affordable permanent supportive housing for families at, or below, the poverty threshold.

"Anybody can do a shopping center," he said. "But if you do somebody's home like this - that really needs a place to live, it's a great feeling."

"It's one thing to be able to provide services," said Aisha Morrell-Ferguson, of COTS. "It's another to have a venue - a space - where they can find safety, comfort, and support.

"Some of the families that we partner with - that we collaborate with - have experienced trauma and crisis. So oftentimes they just need support - they need somebody to say hey - you're not alone - there is light at the end of the tunnel."

Morrell- Ferguson is chief development officer for COTS - she says affordable housing like this is almost unheard of in Detroit's Midtown.

"The developments that are going up around us - one bedroom apartments, and some of them studios - $2,200, $2,300 a month - that's not affordable for the average Detroit family," she said.

Which is why - she says this is so valuable. People can get a GED, programming for children, healthy cooking classes there, while a mobility coach helps the families toward a brighter future.

"A lot of our families have little to no income," she said. "So some of our families don't have rent to pay - others have a very small percentage of that income so they can build that stability."

The first family moved in, December 2020 and by June of 2021 all of the apartments were full in a safe, stable environment.

One that Jim Pappas is proud to be part of it, along with the many other non-profits they've designed for.

"Today over half of our work is with different non-profit organizations," Pappas said.

"We believe heavily in the power of partnership and even to partner with Fusco Shaffer and Pappas - to bring this vision - this dream to reality - it's a dream come true for us," Morrell-Ferguson. "But it's bigger than us - it's for the families

Families - getting stronger every day.

"It's a joy - i can't even put it into words how amazing it feels to be able to witness that growth and that triumph for them," she said.