Meeting as the Redevelopment Agency, the City Council agreed to funnel $3 million to The Road Home to help purchase the Holiday Inn hotel at 999 S. Main as a refuge for low-income families and single men and women. The money will buoy a $7 million matching grant from the LDS Church, which The Road Home will use to convert the hotel into studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments.

At the same time, the RDA board agreed on language to put three ramshackle hotels for sale on State Street between 200 South and 300 South. By a 5-2 vote, the RDA voted to allow developers to consider condos, shops or offices at the bug-infested, waterlogged structures known as the Cambridge, Regis and (already closed) Windsor hotels.

Developers will be allowed some flexibility on whether they retain the buildings for reuse or build anew, under the RDA terms.

Mayor Rocky Anderson has called the hotels government-subsidized "slums," and supported gentrification in the area.

But Councilman Soren Simonsen, who invoked Downtown Rising, and Councilwoman Jill Remington Love argued the old structures ought to be preserved.

"We've talked about the need to create a good urban fabric and yet we don't have the zoning ordinances in place to do that," Simonsen said.

Tenants, too, have complained. They say the State Street units provide a curfew-free refuge for the destitute, disabled and the elderly.

But Matt Minkevitch, executive director of The Road Home, insists the new units at the old Holiday Inn will provide an upgrade. Provided they pass a screening test, Minkevitch says the tenants will be welcome in the new building.

And with the RDA money, he said, the refurbished 213-units should help curb homelessness in the community.