Regis Hotel shutting its doors

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) — If somehow you end up at the Regis Hotel, it's safe to say you've made a bad choice or two.

So says Tina Powell, who has lived in the low-income digs on State Street for nearly two years now. But Powell and the two dozen other people who call the Regis home say it is a "stepping stone" with a "legacy" of success stories — and they're asking city leaders not to shut down the place.

"If they evict these people, the city will be adding to the homeless count," Tim Funk of the Crossroads Urban Center said on the steps of City Hall Wednesday.

The city's Redevelopment Agency, which owns the property, has entered into an agreement with a developer to revamp the site at 253 S. State. And the 25 people who live in the Regis have been given eviction notices.

But now is not the time for a move, Funk said.

"The developer is having a hard time finding someone … who will finance it," he said. "We think the hotel can stay open at least another year."

Regis residents live there "because it's cheap," Funk said. Residents pay $90 a week, and a handful of them make rent by working for the building's management group.

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