Tenants at northwest Charlotte hotel say things have gotten worse as power, gas cut off
Alicia Harvey was reading a book and eating breakfast warmed on a hot plate with her daughter when the electricity in her room at the Lamplighter Inn went out around 10:30 a.m. Thursday.
It wasn’t the first time a utility had been randomly shut off at the hotel just off I-85 in northwest Charlotte, she and other tenants said in interviews Thursday. Last week, the building’s water and gas had been shut off without notice as well.
“When I went to my bathroom to go flip the light on … I was like ‘Oh my God, now we’re without power,’” said Harvey, who has been living at the hotel with her two teenage daughters since February.
Water was restored soon after it was cut off last week, tenants said, but the gas still hadn’t been turned back on. They’ve had to cook and clean without hot water, and go to work and school without hot showers.
Many were boiling water on hot plates in their rooms to wash themselves in their tubs or sinks, but were left without even that option after the power was shut off. And on Thursday evening they had no idea when it would be restored. They hoped it would be on by morning.
Tenants said it was the latest tactic to try and get them to exit the premises by the hotel’s owner.
Things have gotten worse
Harvey was one of many tenants who moved into the hotel for a supportive housing program called Vermelle’s Place. It was billed as a transitional housing facility where residents could get affordable rent and on-site health services, counselors and a housing specialist.
But a Charlotte Observer investigation published in July found that tenants were instead living in rooms with poor plumbing, leaking ceilings, cockroaches and water they didn’t feel comfortable drinking. And services weren’t being offered there.
The nonprofit that was going to run Vermelle’s Place ended its lease agreement with the hotel in December, handing over the program to the private company 4C in January when tenants began moving in, according to representatives earlier this year.
Then, plans to continue the program between 4C and Chandresh Patel, whose business Comodo Care LLC owned the hotel, fell through.
Patel declined to be interviewed, but in text messages to The Charlotte Observer on Thursday he said he had sold the property to a hotel next door called the Loyalty Inn. “I’m not responsible here,” he wrote.
Kennisha Crosby, who said she was the manager at the Loyalty Inn, said Thursday that the owner of that property was interested in purchasing the Lamplighter but decided not to buy it. “We don’t have anything to do with them,” she said.
Patel purchased the hotel in 2020 for $1.2 million, according to online Mecklenburg County property records.
Tenants earlier this year said requests for repairs went unanswered, while Patel said tenants refused to pay rent and that his business has suffered.
Since then, said Natasha Perry, who was one of the tenants interviewed in July, things have gotten worse.
Code enforcement notices
Trash has piled up in walkways at the hotel because the owner has stopped collecting, tenants said.
One tenant, Genese Wilson, has lived at the hotel with eight other members of her family between two rooms for six months. She said she’s paid people to remove the trash because it’s become a safety hazard at times.
The window in the room where some of her kids stay, including her 18-year-old daughter Alay’Jah Johnson, is almost completely shattered. Three small holes appear to be from bullets. A piece of cardboard and drywall covers them.
Ellen Miller and Eveco Haggins, a married couple who were interviewed in July, said Thursday the leaking in their room has gotten worse, and a hole in their ceiling has continued to grow.
On Thursday, two complaints and notices of hearing from the city’s code enforcement office were taped to the door of the hotel’s office.
Each was dated Nov. 7, and detailed cracks and holes in walls and moisture stains in two rooms. It also said the water heater was not operable at the time of the inspection.
Two lawn signs were posted in the grass near the front of the hotel that said it was closed for renovations. But dozens of tenants were walking in and out of their rooms Thursday afternoon.
Nowhere else to go
Wilson said many of her groceries had begun to go bad by the afternoon because her refrigerator didn’t have power to keep them fresh. And without power, she has no way to cook.
Her family can’t afford to keep eating takeout, she said.
Miller, who uses injectable insulin, said she was worried about other tenants who needed to keep medication cold or needed power for lifesaving medical devices.
Haggins gets cups of ice from a gas station next door to keep Miller’s insulin safe, but other tenants may not have the ability or money to find similar solutions, Miller said.
Many tenants have started working with Apryl Lewis, an advocate and founder of Kinetic Works LLC, when problems at the hotel arise. Lewis also helps tenants with things like finding housing assistance or legal aid.
When tenants told Lewis about the electricity being shut off on Thursday, she said started reaching out to city officials to try and get it restored.
For many tenants, the hotel is the only thing standing between them and homelessness. They have nowhere else to go.
And the utility cutoffs and conditions of their rooms have a negative impact on their mental health, they said.
Harvey said she let her daughter miss school on Thursday because their living conditions have affected her schoolwork, and the inability to take a hot shower has made her worried her classmates will make fun of her daughter. But she and her kids have nowhere to go.
“I went through a whole meltdown this morning because I don’t want her missing school,” Harvey said. “It makes me feel just less than a mom, just like less than an adult, not being able to provide for my child.”
