Mold Remediation in Southfield, MI

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation said the home is expected to open next year.

A former Holiday Inn in Southfield is being given new life and will soon give veterans who have fallen on hard times a place to call home.

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SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — A former Holiday Inn in Southfield is being given new life and will soon give veterans who have fallen on hard times a place to call home.

The hotel off of Northwestern Highway closed in October. Tuesday morning the foundation behind the endeavor and city leaders broke ground on the project.

The Tunnel to Towers Foundation said it plans to renovate the building to turn it into a Veterans Village and provide wraparound services to help them thrive.

Gavin Naples, Vice President of Tunnel to Towers, makes it clear it will not be transitional housing. He said veterans can stay for life if they choose.

“So, it’s a nice looking building as it is but we’re gonna be putting millions of dollars into this building to gut renovate it and provide a litany of supportive services and case management, entitlement support, VA support, legal advocacy, employment support, peer support for our veterans, as well as a permanent place to call home," he explained.

Naples said this is the foundation's fifth facility nationwide, with several others under construction. It’s the first in Michigan.

Southfield Mayor Ken Siver said, “It was pretty smooth sailing. We worked through the planning department, the building department, then city council and here we are today.”

Vietnam veteran Ed Williams, who took a tour said, “I was truly impressed."

He told 7 News Detroit it’s a concept he wishes existed in 1968 because, he recalls, some of his close comrades coming back from Vietnam with no place to go.

“I can’t wait 'til they finish it up. If I wasn’t lucky enough to have a place, I would put this on my list to give great consideration to it," Williams explained.

It was news to a number of nearby residents and businesses 7 News Detroit spoke to.

Southfield resident Barbara Boggs-Hughey said, "As a community, we need to do that. We need to stick together. We need to help one another (and) be our brother's keeper."

The former Holiday Inn is along the path Boggs-Hughey and her friend Dr. Lois Berrien-Jones routinely walk on Evergreen Road.

Berrien-Jones, who lives in Bloomfield said, “All of us should take care of each other. That’s what a community does.”

Across from the future Veterans Village is Starters Bar and Grill where long-time employee Sheila Torres said maybe local businesses can help by providing employment to the veterans who need it.

“I think it’s a good thing. I think they sacrificed a lot, to go and fight for us and for our rights and our freedom, and I think that once they get out that there should be somewhere they can go and have a home," Torres said. "I mean, you have to put yourself in that position. What if it were you and you had served your country? Would you want somewhere to go?"

The foundation said the home is expected to open next year.

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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.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Getty images