Wildman, I don't know anything about the motel you're talking about, but the reason it hasn't been taken over, restored, converted to long term shelter, staffed with a skeleton staff etc etc, may be that the effort probably doesn't pencil out - most shelter situations are short term, and there are plenty of places that can be pressed into duty as short term shelter spaces. Renovating and keeping a space active as an available space sounds good, until you compare it to sheltering folks in churches and community centers, which can be done for marginal costs.

Costs of renovation after trashing can be prohibitive - squatters might not just have abused the electric, sewage and water systems, but have rendered them unusable, requiring costly replacement. With the price of copper, who knows what has been removed from the motel's systems?