About 60 residents of a troubled motel in west Charlotte have been told they must move out. The city has partnered with nonprofits to help them find new homes and figure out if residents have any protections.
A couple of weeks ago, some residents of the Lamplighter Inn, just off I-85 and Freedom Drive, heard they had to move out, but there was nothing in writing. Last week, the water was shut off without notice. This week, power and gas were disconnected.
“I have to go somewhere else to take a shower. I have to go somewhere else to eat. I have to go somewhere else to charge my phone,” said Jack Mckubbin, 60, who has lived at the motel for six months. “Even though I was paying to stay here, but now I got to go elsewhere.”
Mckubbin says he can stay with family if he needs to, but he worries about some of his neighbors who have no place to go. As the Charlotte Observer reported, many of the motel residents came to the motel with the promise that they’d be part of a transitional housing program. But that never happened, and residents have had many problems, including access to hot water, cracks in walls and bugs.
Chandresh Patel’s business is listed as the owner of the property. He said in a text message to WFAE that he sold the motel and that it’s no longer under his management. Online bookings are now going through OYO hotels.
Electricity is back on, and efforts continue to get hot water back at the motel. The city says it is working on supporting "a coordinated and humane approach to the transition."
