The very large sheets of plywood surrounding a historic building in downtown Phoenix have been turning a lot of heads lately.
The plywood makes it look like The Westward Ho is on the verge of closing it's doors for good, but it's actually the opposite. The historic building is adding a new tenant: Arizona State University.
Renovation has begun on 15,000 square feet of the first floor of The Westward Ho for a health and behavioral wellness clinic.
In addition, faculty offices and an education facility, administered by faculty and students from the ASU College of Public Service and Community Solutions and the Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy, will also occupy the new space.
This isn't the first time the building has been renovated. In 1979, the building was converted from an historic 600-room hotel to 289 one bedroom and studio apartments for low-income elderly and disabled residents.
The idea is for students from the ASU Schools of Social Work, Recreational Therapy, Nutrition and Nursing to provide free services, such as wellness checks and short term counseling to the 300, or so, low income, Westward Ho residents.
"One of them I know is a behavioral clinic, and the other one, I think, is an assessment clinic," resident, Marjorie Smith said. "It's where people will be doing their internships--which is good, they need to practice somewhere."
The students will be receiving high quality clinical practice while boosting the overall quality of life for the people who live at the Westward Ho.
"We're gonna create free, low cost adaptive recreational activities and leisure activites for these individuals," Dr. Michael Shafer, a professor in the College for Public Service and Community Solutions at ASU, said. "Many (residents) are mobility impaired. We want to create a sense of fun and leisure for these individuals."
Shafer assured residents that no tenants would be displaced when ASU comes into the building in the fall of 2015.
The clinic is expected to be open by the fall 2015 semester.
