Permanent housing units have been turning into short-term rentals for years with the proliferation of sites like Airbnb.

Now, to help solve the housing crisis, short-term rentals like motels are being turned into permanent housing.

Bayside Housing & Services recently announced it had closed on the purchase of the Hadlock Motel.

The sale was finalized Friday, Dec. 9.

Minor renovations to add kitchenettes in each room have begun, according to Bayside. The motel property, which has been renamed Woodley Place in honor of the former owners, will be operated as permanent, supportive housing.

While permanent is a new word for Bayside, the supportive piece is something the organization has long practiced.

“We’re teaching them the skills that they need to be good tenants,” said Heather Dudley-Noellette, director of development for Bayside.

“At Bayside, we have trauma-informed case management where we work with each client to build the skills that they need in order to become permanently housed and we work with them as long as they need to be worked with until they are ready,” she added.

For the last six years, Bayside’s transitional supportive housing network has operated out of two tiny house villages — Peter’s Place in Port Hadlock and Pat’s Place in Port Townsend — as well as 24 leased rooms in the tower building of the Old Alcohol Plant.

The move to permanent will be no small feat.

To help facilitate the process, Bayside received a grant from the Center for Supportive Housing for a five-month training on the skills, systems, and staffing required for the new endeavor.

“It’s not just a small leap, it’s a big leap for a small organization,” Dudley-Noellette said.

With 16 studios and one four-bedroom unit, the property increases Bayside’s capacity for housing by 30 percent.

Even minor renovations to reach the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s standards for permanent housing will inevitably be a long and involved process.

In the meantime, there are plans to use the space while that work gets done.

“In order to house people most quickly, we will open it as immediately as we can to fill it as transitional supportive housing,” Dudley-Noellette said.

Just to purchase the property took months of work by Bayside’s Director of Housing Michael Moore.

“It was all about relationship building and people in our community talking to each other and wanting to do something to solve the housing crisis,” Dudley-Noellette said.

Funding came primarily through a legislative grant due to the untiring efforts and support of Washington State Rep. Steve Tharinger, who has also been a major player in funding the Hadlock sewer project which would allow Bayside to expand.

“We are dependent on the sewer in order to do any expansion of note, but once that comes in we would be able to provide more housing right there on that property,” Dudley-Noellette said.