Hoping to ease community concerns, Ephrata Borough Council has called for a public meeting to discuss plans to convert an Ephrata motel into short-term housing for the homeless.

Community Basics Inc., a nonprofit company with similar projects in Manheim Township, Lititz, New Holland and East Lampeter Township, and the Lancaster County Coalition for the Homeless have teamed up in an effort to purchase the Cloister Motel on West Main Street.

The plan is to enlarge the individual units into one- and two-bedroom apartments with kitchen, bathroom and living areas. They also plan to convert a house on the property into five apartments, creating a total of 15 units.

The average stay for a person in this type of facility, Councilwoman Susan Rowe said, is almost three years.

The project is expected to cost $2 million, of which $1.2 million has been secured, including $1 million from the Redevelopment Authority of Lancaster County.

Built in the 1950s, the motel, just west of the Route 322/272 interchange, is vacant.

"These are not street homeless," Mayor Ralph Mowen told the crowd at Monday's council meeting. Some neighbors of the motel came to the meeting armed with questions and concerns. "These are people who maybe have lost their jobs and homes for economic reasons and have been living with friends or relatives."

Councilman Robert Good expressed concern about how people would be referred to the motel. Mowen said it would be done through the Ephrata Area Ministerium, which supports the project.

Mowen said the people would be "closely supervised" while living at the motel and given assistance with budgeting and other programs designed "to get their feet back on the ground."

Good, who said he did not oppose the project, said Ephrata advertises itself as a "location of choice" for people to live.

"Is this what we're really looking for to make Ephrata a place people would want to come?" he said. "What is best for the community?"

Mowen reminded Good that "no one is knocking down the door" to buy the vacant motel.

Council President Tony Kilkuskie referred to county statistics provided by the developers that indicate Ephrata's homeless population is second only to that found in Lancaster city.

Rebecca Gallagher, owner of the historic Smithton Inn, half a block west of the motel, said she has an "unsavory feeling" about the project, based mostly on a lack of information. She said she and others have "not been given enough information to form an opinion for or against."

She posed questions about the application process, Community Basics' performance record at other locations and its funding sources and the ability of existing transitional housing facilities to handle the cases intended for the motel.

Joyce Turner, of 854 W. Main St., opposed the project coming to Ephrata, saying it is better suited for Lancaster city.

Council members told concerned citizens that the project is not "a done deal" because the developers are still $800,000 short in their funding. They also told people that, while the project must go before the borough and county planning commissions, it meets all borough zoning requirements, meaning council could not vote it down.

Because of the questions still surrounding the project, council members asked Rowe to set up a public meeting with Community Basics.

A meeting date has not been set.

No one from Community Basics attended Monday's meeting. Calls for comment on the project placed to company spokesman Tom Eisemann were not immediately returned.

lalexander@lnpnews.com