HELENA — The Lewis and Clark area United Way says it has ended its plans to purchase the Helena Inn after failing to reach a deal with the current owners following the building's appraisal.
Emily McVey, the executive director of United Way in the Lewis and Clark area says, "We will be looking for a new space to help increase affordable housing in Helena, specifically supportive housing. Supportive housing is not just housing it is also wrap-around support services."
This could look like something smaller than the Helena Inn like a group home, or something larger.
McVey says they could also potentially work with partners to build something from scratch.
The organization had planned to convert the Helena Inn into 48 permanent studio apartments to provide affordable housing for voucher holders.
"We had to spend some money when we were working on the project so we had inspections done. We had worked with architects and contractors and so unfortunately there are some unrecoverable things we spent money on," McVey says. "Now we know what to look for in the next project that will probably save us some time and money going forward."
United Way engaged in an ambitious program-building and fundraising campaign to meet a $5 million goal for the purchase and renovation of the Helena Inn by Christmas Day of last year but fell short.
The organization raised 722 thousand dollars on record, enough to get a bank loan. However, 30 thousand dollars are unrecoverable due to the inspection expenses.
The money raised is sitting in a separate account to go towards the new housing space and support services.
McVey says, "We realize we have done a ton of work on that support services piece and so what we can do is do that work out of our office or in partnership with some of the other community agencies and so we will do that the tenancy support work, independent living training skills, and home-based supports for those being housed after being chronically homeless."
Despite the ending of the plan United Way is still providing support services to those in need and are grateful to everyone who contributed to the original project.
