SOUTHFIELD (WWJ) — A vacant hotel in Southfield will soon be renovated to become a home for local homeless veterans.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation held a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning at the old Holiday Inn on Northwestern Highway near 10 Mile Road as work began to turn the property into the Detroit Veterans Village.
The project will provide housing assistance and support services to nearly 100 veterans in the Metro Detroit area with “on-site comprehensive support services for its residents to break the cycle of homelessness.”
Services offered on-site include job training, benefits assistance, education assistance, medical care access, mental health support and PTSD counseling, as well as addiction treatment.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is a non-profit that supports America’s first responders, Gold Star families, and military veterans. Vice President Gavin Maples told WWJ Newsradio 950 the village will have all the resources homeless veterans need.
“We discovered very early on that it’s not enough to just provide high-quality housing accommodation to a veteran in need, you have to really identify and address the root causes of veteran homelessness and provide that platform of rehabilitation,” Maples said.
Vice President Gavin Maples says they're THRILLED to turn blight... into new hope for veterans
“Our adaptive reuse strategy, conversions of existing hospitality properties, has been very well-received by a lot of markets in which we’re doing these veterans villages. We have about 12 programs currently in large metro areas throughout the nation.”
Tunnel to Towers launched the program in 2023, having already built Veterans Villages in four cities and work underway in three other cities and plans for villages in three others.
Through these villages and its case management network, Tunnel to Towers has provided housing assistance to over 6,500 Veterans nationwide, according to a press release.
Maples says Metro Detroit has a big need for more housing for homeless veterans.
“The need for permanent housing is particularly important. As a veteran that’s struggling, or anyone that’s struggling, there are places to put your head, but they’re federally funded, they’re for a period of finite amount of time — six months, nine months, 12 months — then when the funding runs out and you have to go to another place,” he said.
More information on how Tunnel to Towers is helping America’s veterans and first responders and their families can be found on T2T.org.