Two dozen tenants lingering at Salt Lake City's low-income Regis Hotel have to get out next week. But, city officials stressed Friday, there are spruced-up digs awaiting them four blocks farther west.

On Monday, Salt Lake City's Redevelopment Agency will reopen the Rio Grande Hotel after a $200,000 renovation, including a new common kitchen, structural upgrades and carpet repairs.

The former respite for rail workers -- the hotel at 428 W. 300 South is across the street from the historic Rio Grande train station -- will serve as transitional housing for some of the city's poorest residents. The building is 99 years old.

But some Regis tenants are loathe to leave their State Street home. And a housing advocate questions why the RDA-owned building had to be closed in still-nippy March when residents asked to stay until June. A developer plans to renovate the Regis and nearby buildings but is not ready to begin construction.

"It's a stretch of my imagination to know how this could be handled worse," said Tim Funk, housing advocate at Crossroads Urban Center. He also complained that Regis tenants, some of whom have received eviction notices for Tuesday, have very little time to move into the Rio Grande, opening Monday. Plus, residents there still would lack amenities -- individual bathrooms and kitchens -- that most people take for granted.

"The Rio is really just a painted-over version of the Regis," Funk said. "We've never said the Regis was a deluxe place to live, but the people living there have been a community."

Now that community is being dispersed. Twenty-four of the Regis Hotel's 117 rooms remain occupied. Of the 24 tenants, 15 have applied for rooms at the Rio Grande, said Alisa Wixom, RDA project manager. Others plan to go to affordable units at Palmer Court, 999 S. Main St., and a few have not notified the city of their plans.

"There have been a lot of false rumors," about the Rio Grande, Wixom said. "Everyone who's come here has been pleasantly surprised. It's less expensive [at $300 a month] and there are more amenities."

The refurbished lodge has more shared bathrooms, a free laundry room, 24-hour security, a communal kitchen and access to free Internet on hotel computers. There already is a waiting list of 120 people for the 49 units, Wixom said, but preference will be given to former Regis tenants.

"This type of housing is sorely needed," said Salt Lake City Councilman Luke Garrott, who serves as RDA Board chairman. "It's one of the RDA's charges to address [affordable] housing. ... A diversity of incomes is what makes a neighborhood strong and interesting."

Still, William Bogel, a five-year Regis resident, is reluctant to make the move from State Street to 400 West.

Rio Grande is "a much better place" than Regis, he said, but he's not sure whether he can afford the move. Currently, he earns a small wage plus rent for doing maintenance work at Regis. But managers of Rio Grande have offered him rent only for such work.

"I have no other income," Bogel, 45, said. "Most people think that everyone who lives here is on some kind of government assistance -- and we're not."

rwinters@sltrib.com