The local area received some good news last week with the announcement that the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon will receive a large grant to help transform a former local hotel into a facility to help provide housing for the homeless and the housing insecure.

A $1.3 million grant of state funding administered by the Oregon Community Foundation will drive a plan to refurbish The Whiskey Inn on Dorion Avenue. The facility is a first-of-its-kind in the eastern portion of the state and it will hopefully go a long way toward helping those in the community most in need.

Like all such facilities anywhere, it probably won’t escape scrutiny and, perhaps, criticism by neighbors. That isn’t unexpected and nearby residents surely have the right to give their opinions and express their fears about blight and potential illegal activity.

Yet, CAPECO Chief Executive Officer Paula Hall said steps are already in the works — including the formation of a neighborhood committee — to tackle key concerns.

The grant allows the city and, by extension, the county to take on a persistent problem. Residents who are homeless or housing insecure isn’t a new challenge, but it is a growing one not only in Oregon but across the nation.

Realistically, rural areas, such as Pendleton, were the least prepared to overcome housing insecurity and homeless issues. That’s not because of a lack of empathy, but rests chiefly on the limited resources rural counties and cities can rely on.

The number of people who are housing insecure continues to climb each year and is becoming a challenge not only in small rural towns like Pendleton but in place like Ontario, in Malheur County, and other places throughout the state.

The new future for the former motel is a concrete example of progress toward addressing that problem. Rather than platitudes or endless tomes of studies on the problem of the housing insecure, this effort provides a way forward.

Hall also emphasized in a story last week in this newspaper that in the future some rooms of the former motel will be used to help the housing insecure for up to two years, while they search to find permanent housing.

That’s also good news because it means the facility won’t be a “forever home” but a way station, a place for people to get back on their feet.

The plan to convert the old motel is a good one and the local community should be satisfied with this solution.