NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. (KTXL) — After nearly five years in planning and construction, the former Courtyard Inn is about to be reborn, providing 92 housing units for the homeless trying to get out of the lifestyle and for low-income residents.

The motel used to generate an average of 500 calls for service every year, where reports of prostitution, drug sales, assaults and theft were so prevalent a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office squad car was often stationed there.

“The main thing when you drove by here was a sheriff’s deputy car,” said Sacramento County Supervisor Susan Peters.

Peters was a key player in getting Mercy Housing to purchase the property, tearing down some of it and adding buildings.

A site already used for housing helps during a time when communities are looking for sites to house the homeless.

“This is already in a commercial area where people came and went. So it wasn’t a new impact for neighbors,” explained Peters.

The 80 Watt District, a Property and Business Improvement District, welcomed the transformation that will improve the business climate.

“Provide for some much-needed housing, affordable with great security and it’s going to be a great transformation for the region and for the area for us,” said Davis Khunen of Recycling Industries.

The project is also a win for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, which strains to create affordable housing.

“Something that was blighted and turn it into something that is really, really needed right now, which is affordable housing for people who are homeless,” said La Shelle Dozier, executive director of SHRA.

The facility will eventually house 178 people with 24-hour support services at a secure site.

Once construction is finished in 60 days, county officials said it will take no longer than three months to fill every one of these units.