The La Quinta Inn in Ventura was a motel popular with truckers for its easy access to Highway 101 and Victoria Avenue. It’s now the Valentine Road Apartments, and within the next couple of months all 134 studio units will have people living there who were previously either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.
To make that happen, Ventura Housing, the city housing authority, paid $76.8 million to buy and renovate the motel, with $32 million of that coming from a state grant. The total cost works out to about $565,000 per unit, including two units for property managers.
That price tag wasn’t unusual or unexpected…