City to help move tenants living in poor conditions at Charlotte hotel, cut utilities
The west Charlotte hotel where people have lived in poor conditions will close in December, and some tenants will be moved to other hotels, a city housing employee said at a press conference Friday.
All residents staying at the Lamplighter Inn will need to be out of the hotel by Dec. 11, said Warren Wooten, assistant director for affordable housing with the city of Charlotte. That’s because the city will cut off all utilities at the property located on Eddleman Road off Interstate 85, he said.
“The Lamplighter Inn is deemed unsafe for residents,” Wooten said, “The situation has become unsustainable, requiring further action be taken.”
The city’s announcement came after conditions deteriorated at the hotel for the people living there, many of whom might be homeless otherwise. Charlotte’s mayor on Friday called for elected officials to look for any policy changes that might prevent those situations.
Leslie Blaser, an operations manager at the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Services office, and Assistant City Manager Shawn Heath also attended the online press conference, which came about a week after the city clarified that previous information it shared about tenants receiving a 30-day vacate notice was incorrect.
Residents were notified at the hotel in west Charlotte on Friday about the plan. Fliers have been made in English and Spanish to tell people staying at the hotel about the property closing.
If any of the approximately 68 people occupying 35 rooms at the hotel have nowhere else to go when the property closes, they will be given assistance, Wooten said, including help moving to another hotel.
Tenants who can afford it will have to pay to stay at the new hotel rooms, but those who can’t will receive some kind of financial assistance through the city’s contractual relationship with the nonprofit Crisis Assistance Ministry, Wooten said.
Nonprofit helping with moves
Carol Hardison, the CEO of Crisis Assistance Ministry who also spoke at the press conference, said staff from Action NC, a nonprofit, will visit the hotel in the coming weeks to make sure residents understand the upcoming closure.
The nonprofit, which provides financial assistance for rent and utilities, also manages the city’s Mass Displacement Project, she said. All utility services at the hotel were put under Crisis Assistance Ministry’s own accounts to get services restored, Wooten said.
Crisis Assistance Ministry has helped find potential hotels the tenants could be moved into from the Lamplighter Inn.
Hardison said three confirmed hotels have availability for the tenants. Each hotel was submitted to Code Enforcement for checks and none have any violations.
“The folks that have been there, that suggested them to us, said they’re decent hotels,” Hardison said at the press conference. They will still be “a low-end hotel, but not something with these issues.”
She said Crisis Assistance Ministry will help organize the effort to relocate people to their new hotel rooms.
Donations allowed the project team to purchase items like large storage bags to help make moving tenants’ belongings easier. Volunteers, from local churches to community groups, will help move the tenants and their belongings using their vehicles, she said.
“I support the decision to move people to safe and decent housing, even if temporarily,” Hardison said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer. “Because where they’re staying — nobody should be forced to live in conditions like that.”
Lack of communication with owner
A Charlotte Observer investigation published in July found that several of the over 60 people living at the hotel moved in early this year believing they’d be part of a nonprofit-run supportive housing program called Vermelle’s Place. But the program, which advertised counseling, health services and affordable rent, never happened.
Instead, the tenants were left stranded in rooms with leaking ceilings, cockroaches, poor plumbing, and water they didn’t feel comfortable drinking. Conditions have deteriorated since then, tenants have said.
Utilities are just part of the problem, they’ve said. Trash has stopped being collected consistently and has piled up, attracting pests and rodents, and creating a safety and health hazard. And key cards for their doors have stopped working, risking locking them out.
The city decided the hotel should close because of utility cutoffs, code violations, and a lack of cooperation from the owner, Wooten said.
The building was deemed unsafe for habitation by the Charlotte Fire Department, said Jerry Green, the city’s enforcement division manager.
Mayor wants to fix problems
Mayor Vi Lyles apparently wasn’t happy about the living conditions at the hotel.
Wooten said Lyles issued a “policy referral” on Friday to the City Council’s Housing, Safety and Community Committee, which focuses on the city’s enforcement authority for minimum housing code violations.
“The referral calls for a review of potential policy considerations to strengthen the city’s ability to ensure safe housing for residents of lodging establishments and multi-family dwellings,” he said.
More details on code violations
The city, which has not yet responded to a public records request by The Charlotte Observer seeking information on code violations at the hotel, said Friday there are 21 open cases. That detail came in a press release after the news conference.
There was a code enforcement hearing on Nov. 19 for the property, but no one showed up on behalf of the property.
“Following a hearing, a Findings of Fact and Order is issued, establishing a 30-day period for the property owner to achieve compliance through Repair or Demolition,” the press release said. “Cost of repairs must exceed 65% of the building value to fall into demolition category.”
Services available to residents
There is no timeline of how long people can stay in each new hotel, Wooten said. It will depend on how long the establishment allows them to be there.
A hotel room isn’t the best place “for permanent human habitation, but many residents in Charlotte do live in hotels,” he said. “It is absolutely our goal and hope that they all move towards more appropriate housing unit.”
He said the city has helped people in hotels like this in the past, and “had a very high success rate” of moving residents into long-term living.
The press release said the city launched its plan to work with nonprofits at the Lamplighter on Oct. 31 after utilities were turned off and the owner became unresponsive.
Green confirmed the owner is Chandresh Patel, who previously said he sold the property.
“We have not had any contact with Mr. Patel lately. He has kind of gone off the grid,” Green said. “We’ve put several calls, voicemails trying to reach him, and he has been unresponsive.”
Supervising Attorney Justin Tucker and staff attorneys from Legal Aid of North Carolina spoke to some tenants about potential legal pathways available to them at a tenants’ meeting on Sunday, Nov. 17, in the hotel’s parking lot.
Housing Collaborative, another nonprofit, is working with tenants to find permanent housing. Alicia Harvey, a tenant who has been living at the hotel since February, said they’ve reached out to help them find a home.
“I hope that our response is special,” said Wooten, the city housing official. “Our City Council deeply cares about our residents, and so tools like the displacement response, the work that we do with Carol [Hardison] is a way that we can step in and provide resources to people that are experiencing maybe one of the lowest points in their life.”
This story was originally published November 22, 2024 at 1:22 PM.
