Morton House residents move out

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - For 40 years, the Morton House had a US government contract to provide subsidized housing for more than 200 people in downtown Grand Rapids. But the last tenant will be out no later than Thursday.

In May, the Morton House's owner, Saperstein Associates, announced the facility would close when the contract expired. So, in just more than three months, private organizations such as Degage Ministries , Servants Center and various government agencies managed to place each of the around 200 people in new housing.

The effort required the Grand Rapids Housing Commission to both work with landlords to find new apartments and to provide rent subsidies for each person, a process that often takes years. They raised mostly private money to replace furnishings infested by bedbugs and roaches.

Some Morton House residents had little or no income and could rent a room for $25 a month. But even though the residents have new places to live, its closing is another loss of low income housing. In the past few years, 115 low income units at Heartside Manor and another 130 at the YMCA have vanished.

"Now we're losing 224 very low income units," said Don Tack of Servants Center. "That's going to make it more difficult for Servant's Center and other agencies that work with the homeless to find safe, affordable housing for people."

The owners plan to sell the Morton House in a few weeks, but the new buyer has not been identified.