Andy Miller and Renuka Rayasam
STONE MOUNTAIN, Ga. — As principal of Dunaire Elementary School, Sean Deas has seen firsthand the struggles confronted by youngsters dwelling in extended-stay lodges. About 10% of scholars at his college, simply east of Atlanta, reside in a single.
The youngsters, Deas stated, usually have been uncovered to violence on lodge properties, exhibit aggression or anxiousness from dwelling in a crowded single room, and face meals insecurity as a result of some lodge rooms don’t have kitchens.
“Social trauma is the biggest challenge” when college students first arrive, Deas stated. “We hear a lot about sleep problems.” To meet college students’ wants, Deas developed a schoolwide program that includes counselors, a meals pantry, and particular protocols for dealing with those that could go to sleep in school.
“Beyond the teaching, there’s a social part,” he stated. “We have to find ways to support the families as well.”
Extended-stay lodges are sometimes a final resort for low-income households looking for housing. Nationally, greater than 100,000 college students lived in extended-stay lodges in 2022, in accordance with the Department of Education, although officers say that’s doubtless an undercount. Children dwelling in lodges are thought of homeless below federal regulation, and in some Atlanta-area counties about 40% of homeless college students reside in this type of housing, in accordance with native officers.
And with rising rents and evictions, and decreased entry to federal public housing, using extended-stay lodges as a long-term choice is changing into extra frequent. Like different types of homelessness, lodge dwelling can result in — or exacerbate — bodily and psychological well being issues for kids, say advocates for households and researchers who examine homelessness.
In the Atlanta space, inspections of extended-stay lodges have revealed air flow points, insect infestations, mildew, and different well being threats. Children dwelling there can also expertise or witness crime and gun violence. The rising use of extended-stay lodges is a warning signal, observers stated, a mirrored image of the dearth of enough reasonably priced housing coverage within the U.S.
And the disaster is having “lifelong consequences,” stated Sarah Saadian of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The only way that we can really address that shortage is if there are significant federal resources at scale. Build more housing and bridge the gap between rents and wages.”
Often, evictions drive households into lodges — and might maintain them trapped there. Many landlords refuse to hire to folks with evictions of their credit score historical past, even when the tenant isn’t accountable for the displacement, stated Joy Monroe, founder and CEO of the Single Parent Alliance & Resource Center, or SPARC, a nonprofit group in metro Atlanta that has helped lots of of households transfer from lodges to residences or rental houses.
Black ladies and different ladies of shade, usually with children, are evicted at a lot larger charges and usually tend to discover themselves dwelling in extended-stay lodges, advocates say.
Some residents are additionally households fleeing home violence, they are saying.
Hotels usually don’t require safety deposits, utility charges, or background checks, thus offering instant reduction for households in search of shelter. While there are higher-end choices, the typical fee for an economy-class extended-stay room was $56.68 an evening in the course of the first three months of 2024, in accordance with the Highland Group, a analysis agency that focuses on the lodge sector — which works out to greater than $1,700 a month.
And whereas the rooms supply respite from different types of homelessness — like sleeping in a automotive or in a tent — a lodge “is no place to raise children,” stated Michael Bryant, CEO of New Life Community Alliance, which helps households in South Dekalb, part of metro Atlanta, transfer from lodges to houses.
Children dwelling in lodges are sometimes behind on vaccinations, they usually could find yourself within the emergency room due to delays in care, stated Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician in Phoenix who helps youngsters, teenagers, and households who’re presently homeless or liable to homelessness. About 75% of kids with unstable housing whom he sees have not less than one developmental delay, and others expertise vital emotional and behavioral points.
Tanazia Scott, who has bounced between two extended-stay lodges for a number of months, stated her three youngsters “feel depressed and upset” over lodge life.
An eviction despatched Kassandra Norman, 58, and her two daughters right into a months-long journey of staying in Atlanta-area lodges. For three months, they slept in a automotive outdoors a comfort retailer. “It’s hard to do homework in a car and in the hotel,” stated 19-year-old Kazuri Taylor, Norman’s youthful daughter.
Some lodges prohibit children from enjoying outdoors of their parking heaps, resulting in further stress, advocates say. That was the explanation Yvonne Thomas, 45, and her household had been evicted from an extended-stay lodge in DeKalb County, she stated: “They put us out for nothing.”
And there are different issues. More than a dozen college students at Dunaire Elementary reside on an extended-stay property referred to as Haven Hotel. In August, DeKalb County’s code enforcement division stated the lodge had “not maintained minimum life safety standards.” Roaches and spiders reside in rooms and breezeways, in accordance with state well being inspection stories. Residents say they’ve been charged $1 for a roll of bathroom paper.
The lodge’s proprietor and supervisor couldn’t be reached for remark after a number of makes an attempt.
“No one is talking about these families,” stated Sue Sullivan, a neighborhood advocate and a volunteer with the Motel to Home coalition in Atlanta, who brings toys, bookbags, meals, and toiletries on her lodge visits.
A February public well being inspection at one other DeKalb County lodge discovered a number of rooms with poor air flow, insect infestation, and mildew, amongst different potential well being threats. In May, two folks had been fatally shot there.
Children who witness violence can develop anxiousness, melancholy, and different problems, stated Charles Moore, director of the Urban Health Initiative at Emory University School of Medicine. “They can feel emotional aftershocks,” stated Moore, who has visited Atlanta-area lodges.
Closing such lodges, nonetheless, can damage households, given the scarcity of reasonably priced housing, the absence of nationwide federal renter protections, and a dearth of locations to go, stated Terri Lewinson, an affiliate professor on the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Extended-stay lodges do “offer a low-barrier option for families who have no other options,” she stated.
To alleviate the housing drawback, county officers and nonprofit organizations across the nation have been creatively filling the hole. In the Seattle space, for instance, King County officers bought lodges and transformed them into reasonably priced housing, stated Mark Skinner of the Highland Group.
In metro Atlanta, SPARC and the native United Way’s Motel to Home supply funding to assist folks transition into an condominium.
In DeKalb County, the place Dunaire Elementary School is situated, greater than a 3rd of the 1,300 homeless college students reside in lodges, in accordance with Commissioner Ted Terry.
“I hope we can rescue the children,” he stated. “It’s not a safe environment for them.”
Advocates who search to assist folks dwelling in lodges suggest the development of extra reasonably priced housing and stronger protections for renters in opposition to eviction. The federal authorities has failed to invest in repairs wanted to keep up present public housing models, and 25-year-old laws successfully prohibits the development of latest public housing.
It’s additionally “extremely fast, easy, and cheap” to evict tenants in Georgia, stated Taylor Shelton, an affiliate professor of geosciences at Georgia State University, whose analysis focuses on social inequalities and concrete areas. “The playing field is tilted heavily toward landlords.”
Under such circumstances, the cycle of poverty is tough to interrupt, stated Jamie Rush, a senior employees lawyer on the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Most parents would want their kids in a safe, stable home,” Rush stated. “You can’t budget your way out of poverty.”
Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom protecting public well being revealed by Civic News Company and KFF Health News. Sign up for its newsletters here.
KFF Health News is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is without doubt one of the core working applications at KFF—an unbiased supply of well being coverage analysis, polling, and journalism. Learn extra about KFF.
USE OUR CONTENT
This story will be republished totally free (details).