28 Apr Antioch Opens Housing and Service Center for Homeless People

The former Executive Inn Hotel was transformed into a transitional housing hotel, Opportunity Village, in Antioch on Thursday. (Harika Maddala / Bay City News / Catchlight Local)

By Tony Hicks
Bay City News

Antioch officials Thursday unveiled the city’s transitional housing motel, aimed at getting homeless people off the street.

The city says it’s the first city-funded transitional housing site in Contra Costa County. The center will provide mental health and substance abuse support while giving formerly housing-challenged people a roof over their heads.

The former Executive Inn Hotel at 515 E. 18th St. in Antioch will be known as Opportunity Village.

The center will cost Antioch $2 million annually and potentially house up to 135 people a year.

At Thursday’s ribbon-cutting in front of the motel, Antioch Mayor Lamar Thorpe praised the work of homeless advocate Nichole Gardner, Antioch’s director of public safety and community resources Tasha Johnson, and Gary Tia, associate director of the nonprofit Bay Area Community Services.

Thorpe also praised former city manager Ron Bernal and former council member Joy Motts, who Thorpe said “had the political courage to get this done when other people ran for the hills.”

“Joy and I went to visit homeless shelters, and that’s when I learned that, if I wasn’t willing to stay at a homeless shelter, then we have to provide something better,” Thorpe said. “And it’s easy to not do anything and still get reelected.”

“We can’t let perfection be the enemy of progress,” he said.

Johnson said the motel was “historically known for various criminal and harmful activity.”

“But from this day forward, it will now be known as a place of opportunity, a place of hope, and a place of community,” Johnson said.

BACS will partner with the city to operate the site. Tia said homelessness has become an epidemic across the nation.

“People need help,” Tia said. “This is another brother or another sister or a family member who needs a little more. We’re here to help them.”

“I’m grateful that we’ve been able to develop a few resources here that will help people back on their feet,” said Tia. “Help people find jobs, help people find opportunity again, to participate in a life they want to live, a life they deserve. Housing is a right we should all have, just like food and water.”

Acknowledging the ongoing racist and homophobic texting scandal involving Antioch police, Thorpe said the city is going through a maturation process.

“Like any growing city, we have had our challenges and we’ll continue to have our growing pains,” Thorpe said “These challenges and growing pains are not divisions. It’s a robust community coming together and learning about each other because they care about the future.”

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