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Motel closes, leaving more than 100 risking homelessness
More than 100 people renting hotel rooms at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Orlando hotel on International Drive just found out they won’t have a home starting Monday. Now, it’s a mad scramble to find all the families a new place to live. FOX 35's Marie Edinger gives us an inside look at what's going on.
ORLANDO, Fla. - More than 100 people renting hotel rooms at the Howard Johnson by Wyndham Orlando hotel on International Drive just found out they won’t have a home starting Monday. Now, it’s a mad scramble to find all the families a new place to live.
How did it happen?
What we know:
The City of Orlando told FOX 35 News that code enforcement found out last Thursday that the hotel owners hadn’t paid their water bill, and service was about to be cut off. The City of Orlando told residents at the hotel that they needed to be out by Monday.
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When code enforcement and the Orlando Fire Department went to the site, they discovered the fire alarms weren’t working. City records show they’d been cited before for the same issue.
The hotel’s gas company sued this past March, saying they hadn’t paid their bill, and last month, the company that provided their hospitality workers sued for nonpayment.
What we don't know:
FOX 35 News Reporter Marie Edinger reached out to the hotel owners and is waiting to hear back about how they got so behind on payments, as well as why they didn’t ask for help sooner.
Who's helping the families?
The Coalition for the Homeless, the Christian Service Center and the Healthcare Center for the Homeless all stepped in to help families find people some place else to stay.
Trinette Nation, with the Coalition for the Homeless, says a lot of the people they’re helping just need a little boost to avoid winding up homeless. She says 40% of the demographic the organization serves is children.
"We mobilized our two community outreach teams to come out and help do intake and assessment of the individuals and families staying here at this location," Nation says.
Who are the families impacted?
Chris Wilcox works at Publix and is one of the people the coalition is putting up in an apartment. The coalition will take care of the security deposit, as well as the first month's rent.
He’s the sole provider in his family, so his paycheck has to stretch to cover himself and his girlfriend, their two little girls, and his mother and brother. They can’t afford to stay anywhere else.
"Basically, everybody would have been outside, sleeping on the ground," he said. ""(This will) give me time to save up, then I can pay it myself."
Shantell Anderson says she's been living at the Howard Johnson hotel for more than six months. She’s disabled and in a wheelchair.
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Anderson says it was a tragedy when she was asked to leave. She and her caregiver had already paid their $250 for the week, and they didn’t have money to spend on a new place. Anderson says she didn’t get a refund from the hotel owner.
"If it wasn't for the coalition, like I said, we would be on the streets," she said.
The Source: This story was written based on information gathered by FOX 35's Marie Edinger in interviews with the City of Orlando, Coalition for the Homeless and residents who live in the hotel.