Some former Lamplighter Inn tenants struggle to find housing a month after hotel closing
When city leaders moved 51 households out of the Lamplighter Inn and into other hotels in December, paying for a 30-day stay, the goal was to make sure each could find a place to live long term.
Several of those households are now in permanent housing, said Tara Peele, the president and CEO of Housing Collaborative, a nonprofit working with the city on its plan to help.
Housing Collaborative is working with 13 former Lamplighter households, Peele said. The city closed the west Charlotte hotel, where people on the cusp of homelessness were living, because city officials found conditions unsafe.
But Housing Collaborative can only help people with proof of income, which some of the former Lamplighter tenants don’t have.
That leaves homeless shelters as one of the only options. And some of the former tenants are now in shelters after living in their cars or on the street following the city’s closure of the Lamplighter.
“All former Lamplighter households have also been directed to and contacted by Mecklenburg County Community Support Services, which has provided information about available shelters and processes to get connected with resources to prevent homelessness,” Peele said.
Many tenants moved into the Lamplighter Inn in early 2024 believing they’d take part in a nonprofit-run supportive housing program that would help them escape homelessness. But a Charlotte Observer investigation in July found conditions were poor and the program never happened.
City leaders eventually took notice of those poor conditions and closed the facility after being unable to reach the hotel’s owner.
A struggle for some
Two couples and four other people who were among those moved out of the Lamplighter said they’ve struggled with homelessness because they can’t afford rent after their one-month stay covered by the city ended.
The former tenants said they’re without options and have to scramble to find places to sleep, like their cars or — for one man — at his job.
Shamika Hill and her husband left their three children — a 7-year-old and two toddlers — with family friends while they sleep on the streets, sometimes in a tent or at a bus stop, she said. They stayed at La Quinta on South Tryon Street after leaving the Lamplighter but had to go after their month was up.
“It’s really been very sad,” Hill said. “We don’t have families to help … and these resources out here, they’re not helping.”
Several people, including Cordell Black, who stayed at the Quality Inn on South Boulevard, and a married couple, Ellen Miller and Eveco Haggins, who stayed at the La Quinta, said they slept in their vehicles in parking lots after the 30 days ended.
They, as well as another former Lamplighter Inn tenant, Richard Graham, about a week ago moved into a shelter near the Sugar Creek area run by the neighborhood-focused nonprofit Heal Charlotte after hearing about it.
But they said they didn’t receive the help they expected from the city government after moving out of the Lamplighter.
Graham stayed for 30 days under the city’s plan at the Extended Stay America on Statesville Road. He is undergoing dialysis for kidney failure, and said he went to a hospital from the stress of being homeless.
Two tenants, who asked to remain anonymous, said they’ve also struggled with finding a place to live because they can’t afford to pay for hotel rooms. One, a man, said he’s been sleeping at his job without the company’s knowledge. The other, a woman, has been sleeping in her car at a friend’s apartment complex.
She said she sleeps sitting up because her backseat is full of belongings and she can’t put the seat back.
She keeps warm with a blanket and running her car through the night.
“I can’t do it again. I can’t,” she said of living in her car for a long period. “I need some immediate help.”
Nonprofits trying to help
Crisis Assistance Ministry, a Charlotte nonprofit, is the lead agency working with the city on its plan for the former Lamplighter tenants.
CEO Carol Hardison said dedicated caseworkers are available to work with former Lamplighter tenants on where they can live and to help them understand homeless services.
Caseworkers have had frequent, recent communication with the former tenants, Hardison said, throughout December and January.
Caseworkers made recommendations to people on where they could move to, she said, and made sure they understood that the city only covered 30 days of a hotel room.
That included directing people without income to shelters or suggesting they live with family or friends, she said.
The Housing Collaborative, the nonprofit that works with people who do have income, began helping some former Lamplighter tenants in December while also helping people from Tanglewood Apartments in north Charlotte, after new ownership took over the property and evicted tenants.
Housing Collaborative is searching for — based on the monthly incomes of the former Lamplighter tenants — rents ranging from $314 to $2,096 a month, or an average of $925, Peele said.
“The average rent in Charlotte is currently $1,458 per month, making it hard to find units for $1,000 or less, so we offer incentives and supports for housing providers willing to partner with us to provide housing for displaced households,” Peele said.
Rebecca Hefner, director of the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Services, said former Lamplighter tenants can reach out to the caseworker assigned to them when the city’s mass displacement effort began in December.
“If there are residents from the Lamplighter who are currently homeless, that did not receive the support they expected or needed, then they need to contact their caseworker or the displacement team at Crisis Assistance,” Hefner said.
This story was originally published January 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
