The City of El Monte’s Homekey Phase II – M Motel Rehabilitation project involved the conversion of the existing M Motel in El Monte, California into interim and permanent supportive housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness. The project was part of California’s Homekey program and focused on rehabilitating an existing two-story, approximately 29,000-square-foot motel into approximately 93 non-transient dwelling rooms, with supporting spaces for housing operations and resident services.

Engineering Fire Protection, LLC provided fire protection and fire alarm design services for the rehabilitation project. EFP’s scope included existing building survey work, public water supply coordination, fire sprinkler system design, fire alarm system design, coordination meetings, shop drawing review, RFI support, site observation, and acceptance testing support. EFP also provided existing building code consulting support to the architectural team, helping the design team evaluate practical code-compliance approaches for converting the former motel use into supportive housing.

A key aspect of the project was adapting fire/life safety systems to an existing motel building being converted from transient lodging use to non-transient residential housing. The project team needed practical design solutions that could satisfy California Fire Code, NFPA 13, NFPA 72, and existing building requirements while respecting the limited project budget. EFP helped the architect and owner navigate these requirements, coordinate the fire sprinkler and fire alarm design with existing conditions, and support a code-compliant rehabilitation strategy without unnecessary construction burden.

Through this work, EFP helped support a socially important housing project that converted an underused motel property into safe, code-compliant housing for people in need, while providing the design team with clear fire protection engineering and existing building code guidance from design through construction administration.