The Pineapple Inn and Housing Center in Williamsburg isn’t your typical hotel.
It has two kitchens and on-site laundry for guests, a communal living room with couches and an air hockey table, and a donation room stocked with clothes and pantry food items.
For 17 years, the center catered to foreign nationals visiting the U.S. through a federal cultural exchange program. But this season, it’s begun focusing solely on serving people without stable housing in the Historic Triangle.
“We plan to be a landing zone and launch pad for you so that you can become the person that you want to be and get the support that you may need,” said Grace Granger, director of operations. “No matter where you come from or what’s going on.”
Granger’s father, Greg, a longtime Williamsburg businessman, owns the inn. The namesake pineapple has symbolized hospitality dating to Colonial times. Grace Granger took over as operations director two years ago, but grew up doing housekeeping work at the inn.
The hotel served J-1 visitors when housing was harder to find for people in the program. Area hotels were frequently reluctant to rent rooms, and those that did often didn't make them feel welcomed during their stay.
“It was very much a ‘you have to live here, but I don’t want people knowing that you’re here,’” Granger said.
The Pineapple Inn, instead, hosted events and luaus to build a warm communal vibe.
But things have changed; J-1 visitors started finding private housing or being housed by the organizations that were hiring them.
That’s why, at the end of 2024, the center decided to home in on others who needed help with housing.
It’s not a new venture; the inn also rented rooms to people in need for years, largely after the summer rush.
“We realized, after the first season, that the hotel was empty the rest of the year because the students were gone,” Granger said. “That’s when we started taking in the precariously housed people within the community that also weren’t being recognized and didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
Subsidized housing and shelters are often at or near capacity on the Peninsula. A 2025 study commissioned by Newport News projected calls to the region’s housing crisis hotline will rise 15% annually. Its authors expect the number of people without housing on the Peninsula will increase 5% per year, driven primarily by rising costs.
“We saw the need going up,” Granger said. “I knew that with everything we were doing, this was the right decision.”
Pineapple Inn isn’t a nonprofit, though it works with several, including some with offices on-site. Its 112 rooms are often full and when space opens up, it gives priority to people referred to the inn by governments’ social services, nonprofits and churches; those organizations are also often helping to cover their rent, which costs about $1100 per month at the inn.
“It’s really a mixed bag,” Granger said. “Every single person has a different circumstance and situation.”
The rooms come with access to the donation room and regular meals donated by churches, charities and restaurants.
Amy Lee, Granger’s predecessor as operations director, now heads Be The Change Hospitality, which has an office at the center. The program helps people staying at Pineapple Inn to get support services.
“That could be money for lodging, could be food, could be insurance,” Lee said. “We couldn’t do what we do without the help of the community.”
FaithWalkers recently created an on-site resource room. The organization, based out of Williamsburg Christian Church, helps people without housing and those being released from jail connect with services and mentorship programs.
“We’re helping people change the way that they think so they can change the way that they live,” said co-founder Marty Wright.
The partnerships, Granger said, complement the inn’s mission to give people the help and space they need to move into a more stable place. For her, it’s a career and spiritual pursuit that stems from her Christian faith.
“They’re all our neighbors,” Granger said. “Doesn’t matter who they are, what they did, where they come from, what they have, what they don’t have; they’re our neighbors and we’re called to love them.”
