City, county and state leaders determined Monday that power to Hotel 121 on Parham Road will be cut no later than 4 p.m. Tuesday in response to various public health and structural safety issues, displacing 40 families including 70 children and 58 adults, which has set off a groundswell of support for both short-term needs and sheltering as well as efforts to overcome what will be a months-long housing issue.
The Henderson City Council held a special called meeting Monday at 10 a.m., and before going into closed session, it became clear that issues with the hotel facility including zoning violations, lack of extended stay permits and code violations had left the City of Henderson feeling it had few options but to step in.
At the time of the 10 a.m. meeting, Mayor Melissa Elliott said the families were packing what they could and that multiple levels of government, including Vance County in particular, were working to open a shelter in the gym at what is known as the former “Eaton Johnson Middle School.”
City Manager Terrell Blackmon said, “The way we are mobilizing by getting them out of a bad health and safety situation was our first priority.”
Elliott said, “You know we are a resilient community that’s working together and that’s what’s happening right now.”
Councilperson Lamont Noel asked about how the families are taking this, and the mayor said, “The families are in crisis.” Elliott said she appeared before some of the residents to let them know the city didn’t want to kick them out but wanted them to be safe. She said she went to let people know the board, or council, cared about them.
The mayor said 80 percent of the folks moving have jobs but can’t get ahead because they are paying rent on a daily basis. “They are paying $2,000 a month,” she said, “to stay in a hotel.”
The county, the schools, a group of local pastors, Franklin-Granville-Vance Partnership for Children, the Granville Vance Public Health Department and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services are helping to secure the short-term shelter, long-term housing, funding sources for rent assistance as well as food, cloths, transportation and solutions for basic needs as a lot of the families’ possessions have has been exposed to black mold and bed bugs.
The city was able to dig in and get more involved after an awning at the facility fell April 22. That event set off a series of meetings, conversations and more that, as soon as the next day on April 23, had the city exploring its options. But, when people from the city showed up Friday, May 3 with emergency housing applications and more, that’s when the residents – many of them long term rather than nightly guests – found out for the first time the location was being closed down. The owners of the property nor their management had told the residents about the closing, some of whom have been residing there more than a year, according to the mayor and other council members and staff at the special called meeting.
Elliott talked about what happened earlier Monday morning with the assistant manager of the hotel. She said, “They have called in an electrical person. They came out yesterday. And they will have an engineer there tomorrow. His plea still is of course ‘don’t turn the power off because it’s going to be hard for them to do the work.’
“Although this place is egregious to say the least, he did allow the people to stay another day so we can get this shelter ready. And I also told him we want them to have business in our community, but we want them to do it the right way.
“You don’t even have to go in a room to see the damage because a lot of the cracked concrete, the walkways, the stairs, and if you walk past the windows, the rooms are full of furniture, some of them are full of black mold, you can see the bed bugs. You don’t even have to go in a room,” Elliott said.
She questioned how county inspectors had not seen this. She said, “This stuff is visual … a lot of it is outside.”
By piggybacking off the Henderson Fire Department, Code Compliance Director Corey Willams said, and by using the “life safety aspect of things,” Fire Chief Tim Twisdale told WIZS by phone, the city can cut the power. By cutting the power, it requires the owner to have to go back and have more complete inspections, pull permits for electrical and other renovations, and it just generally, according to Police Chief Marcus Barrow, puts the facility back to square one.
Williams spoke of code and zoning issues. He described to the council a process that would be gone through and which later could be brought back to the council for a final decision.
Twisdale said the structural stability of things “is what has us the most concerned,” when speaking with WIZS News.
Even while the city’s special meeting continued in closed session, WIZS reached out to Lisa Harrison, Granville Vance Public Health Director. She said, “On a response call with state and local resources at the moment. Heartened by community and state level responses. (The) Environmental Health team has been out a number of times. We are helping Mayor Elliot who is coordinating re-housing efforts for families.”
“Pest control challenges and mold is a common issue in local facilities,” Harrison said.
Vance County Manager Renee Perry said, “We are coordinating efforts with the city, county, and state partners to provide shelter at the old Eaton Johnson Middle School gym. (The) County’s role is to provide emergency management solutions per NCGS 166A.”
“We are seeking mutual aid from other counties to provide other resources such as portable showers, blankets, cots, etcetera,” Perry said.
The children impacted will be able to continue to go to school.
Legal issues could follow, according to Blackmon.
Councilperson Geraldine Champion said, “If that particular place is doing this … How many other hotels may be doing the exact thing without a permit?”
Councilperson Michael Venable said, “There had to be some negligence somewhere too on these inspections. How did that building get to that place … it didn’t happen overnight.”
Williams said he understood county inspectors had been limited to inspecting the rooms used daily as hotel rooms. He said the rest of the rooms had been blocked out for long-term stays and those had not been looked at.