Hotel turned shelter helping Tucson’s homeless

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TUCSON (KVOA) – The pandemic has created a whole new set of challenges for the homeless population in Tucson.

A local animal shelter here in Tucson is working flat out not only to get people off the streets, but also to get them back to work and their own homes.

The Center of Opportunity of the HS Lopez Family Foundation opened in 2019. The hotel that became a homeless shelter has really paved the way for accommodation that offers a variety of services. Some of the services include health care, job placement and counseling.

With COVID-19, they have reduced their capacity to around 50 to 60 percent. Even so, they haven’t stopped helping the vulnerable people of Tucson.

“The access to drugs here is ridiculous, so I ended up on the street and lost my driver’s license. I was arrested and am now working to get my driver’s license back, ”said Kip Bowser.

Bowser is a guest at the HS Lopez Family Foundation’s Center of Opportunity.

“Everyone knows the Holiday Inn … hotel, which has a distinguished history here in Tucson,” said Lisa Chastain, CEO of the Gospel Rescue Mission. “So it had great bones, it just took a little love on some renovations.”

Since early 2021, the shelter has helped 280 people find jobs, 187 people find permanent shelter, and 57 people have completed their addiction support program.

“You just start hopping from place to place and usually you’re trying to find the drugs … and then you’re trying to find shelter,” Bowser said.

For Bowser, he needed his bottom before he found his way up.

“I tried to kill myself and the staff saved me,” said Bowser. “So that was the low point for me.”

Officials at the HS Lopez Family Foundation’s Center of Opportunity said Bowser’s story is not unusual given that drugs are so available on the streets of Tucson.

Pastor Earl Cross says the shelter has helped so many people change their lives.

“You come here stubborn, angry, upset with the world, upset with yourself,” Cross said. “But when I see that the transformation is slowly but surely taking place in your head, then I am happy.”

For more information on how you can help the Center for Opportunity, see here.

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