Anticipating gentrification in its Brentwood neighborhood, the city of Raleigh, North Carolina, did something unusual: It bought a hotel. In 2021, the city used $8 million in funds from the COVID-era American Rescue Plan Act to purchase Hospitality Studios, a 117-room extended-stay hotel across the street from the Broadstone. As the city revamps the building, the goal, says Emila Sutton, Raleigh's director of housing and neighborhoods, is twofold: "to preserve tenancy for the folks already living there" as local rents are surely soon to rise, and to provide permanent housing for Raleigh's homeless population, which from 2021 to 2024 grew by 200%. "Due to prior evictions and credit history, many people are turned away from housing," Sutton says. The hotel, which the city has renamed the Studios at 2800 Brentwood and dramatically reduced room rates, "provides a lower-barrier-for-entry option for those people." Click the link in our bio to learn more about Raleigh’s attempt to solve t...