Chippewa County board approves $2.63 million state grant to convert Indian Head Motel into 27 affordable efficiencies

The Chippewa County Board of Supervisors voted to add $2,628,217 to an existing grant contract to fund Hope Village’s conversion of the Indian Head Motel into 27 efficiency apartments.

Board members approved Resolution 125 to amend grant contract HSG20Four-seven, adding the funds to complete conversion work after a public-comment period and an extended question-and-answer session with Hope Village representatives and county supervisors.

Supporters said the project will create highly affordable efficiency units that currently are scarce in the county. "These 27 units are gonna be very unique," said Ruth Rosenow, a Hope Village board member and former director of the Chippewa County Housing Authority. She said the rent will be $831 a month and that figure includes utilities, making the units appropriate for residents on Social Security or Supplemental Security Income.

Opponents and nearby residents raised safety, timing and fiscal concerns during the public comment period and board discussion. Luke Deutschlander, a Chippewa Falls resident who said many nearby seniors learned of the project too late to attend the meeting, voiced worries that conversions for housing targeted to low-income individuals can bring higher neighborhood police activity in some cases. "I just personally think there's a big concern for community safety here that isn't being pitched and is not being talked about," Deutschlander said.

Board members pressed Hope Village on tenant screening, the project's scope and when renovations would start. A Hope Village representative said the nonprofit has purchased the motel under a purchase agreement and plans to close in the spring after the city issues a required special-use permit and the grant is finalized. Renovations will be phased, the representative said, and not all rooms will be taken offline at once.

Rosenow said Hope Village will apply the same vetting it uses at its tiny-home village: interviews, background checks and input from the Chippewa Falls Police Department. "We will have a very thorough vetting process," she said. She added that the tiny-home program uses mentors and navigators and that the motel conversion would be managed to follow fair-housing rules.

Supervisors asked several operational questions: whether families and children would be allowed, lease lengths, whether an on-site manager would live at the property, and how the nonprofit will handle lease violations. Rosenow said the new units average about 300 square feet, making them more suitable for individuals; a family could rent temporarily but the project is intended primarily for single-person households. Initial leases will be for one year and convert to month-to-month after that, she said. The board heard that Hope Village intends to retain ownership and to operate the building as affordable housing, not as a motel.

Board members and Hope Village representatives also discussed funding sources. A Hope Village representative said most of the money is federal funds that the state is distributing under a regional CDBG process tied to COVID-era allocations; Hope Village expects the state dollars to cover acquisition and renovation costs, including code-required work such as sprinklers and firewalls and adding kitchenettes to each unit.

Some residents cited a potential local tax impact if the nonprofit receives tax-exempt status for the property. Deutschlander said the building currently pays roughly $13,000 a year in property taxes and expressed concern about the tax base if taxes are deferred. County officials clarified that Hope Village is a separate nonprofit entity and the county will act only as the municipal administrator of the grant; the housing authority and Hope Village will own and operate the property.

After roughly an hour of questions, supervisors voted to approve Resolution 125. The clerk announced the motion passed. The board also discussed but did not change the project's 15-year affordability requirements tied to the grant.

The conversion still depends on the city issuing a special-use permit and the grant contract being finalized; Hope Village said it would proceed with renovation planning after those approvals.