What a heartbreaking tale. Local media loves this kind of story, especially in December. It gets the emotions going, and presumably sells papers and gets viewers. Unfortunately, it seems that this is all they are interested in.
Sorry - I’m way too far ahead. Let me start at the start.
The JMS Hotel won’t be confused with such fancy lodging as, say, Motel 6. The JMS Hotel is simply a cheap place to stay, and anonymous reviews give me the impression that it might be… uh, somewhat unsafe:
… as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, someone tried to buy drugs off my husband and I.
… our very friendly neighbors offered to sell us some crack.
… a hooker was already working at 3pm. How industrious!
… can’t believe that we were not killed…
You would be safer sleeping in your car.
So, the owners of the place are not real big on security. And fair enough - it keeps the costs down. Low enough for people to move in and call the place home.
However, I would think that as long as the room rents are paid, any folks staying there should be able to expect some of the necessities such as electricity and water, both of which are past due. So the electricity was shut off, and 53 people were forced out.
I am of the opinion that the hotel’s owners are solely responsible for getting all of us to the point where people had to be removed from the property for their own safety.
Even a worker there was unaware of the impending doom:
Taketa Johnson… had been living and working as a front desk clerk in the rundown hotel for six months… “They just didn’t tell us nothing. We were at work and the lights just came off,” she said.
And what is all of this costing us? Who knows? At the very least, “city officials” had to physically close the hotel. The social services arm is helping many families find new places to live, giving them between $450 and $650 each. The worker is owed at least one paycheck. And 53 people’s lives were upended.
And all of this because the property owners are failing as a business owner and failing as an employer. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say they are failing as a fellow human being.
Will they be held responsible? Will they be sued by the city to recoup these expenses? Will they pay their worker? Will they have to answer to this at all?
It’s hard to tell, but the action of local media says that this part is not important. I mean, I suppose we could hope that our local WATCHDOGS could pressure those involved to make this right. Unfortunately, I don’t think we can expect that.
Not when reporters from both daily papers and the tv station refer to them as “the hotel owners,” rather than telling us who owns the place.