A Bensalem hotel tried to lock out residents. Why a Bucks judge said that can't happen
Erica Williams and her four, young children ― ages 2, 4, 5 and 7 ― would be living on the street, if not for a room at the Neshaminy Inn.
For nearly a year, Williams' four children have slept on the two hotel beds as she slept on the floor of their hotel room off Route 1 in Bensalem.
On May 27, however, Williams said she came home to find the doors to her room locked. Her possessions inside the room were out of reach. Suddenly, she and her kids had no place to go.
A judge on Wednesday sided with Williams, her children and other residents of the motel, saying they couldn't be suddenly kicked out of their rooms.
And the decision by Bucks County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey G. Trauger could have far-reaching implications for hundreds of other homeless people living long-term in area motels, said Joshua Goldblum, attorney for Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
"Long-term residents of extended stay hotels are tenants," said Goldblum. "Even when you are called a hotel, you cannot exercise sudden evictions. That is what the judge said in the case."
Every year, Bucks conducts a census of its homeless population. The county’s Jan. 25, 2022, count found 428 homeless. Of those, 29% percent were living in hotels, the county estimated. One in three of the county’s homeless was under the age of 18.
Long-time hotel residents are tenants under Pa law
Trauger was scheduled on Friday to sign an order negotiated by the Neshaminy Inn and Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania. That order that gives long-time residents of the Neshaminy Inn more rights and protections under the law.
Under Pennsylvania law, a hotel is defined as an inn, motel, house or cabin where you can sleep for a period of less than 30 days. An occupant becomes a “permanent resident” after 30 days of uninterrupted occupancy on the property, under state law, which means they're protected by the same rules that govern renters, including notice of eviction.
Yet multiple residents living at the Neshaminy Inn for several years allege that they recently received notices to vacate within a 24-hour period, and a handful said that they were suddenly locked out of their rooms. That's when some called Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania for help.
Legal Aid said it had filed a preliminary injunction for the residents of three rooms and that residents in at least five other rooms have also filed, or planned to file, petitions.
Legal Aid did not know how many individuals lived in those rooms who might be affected.
Details of Wednesday's order were largely negotiated during a 40-minute session behind closed doors in Trauger’s courtroom office. Late Wednesday, all agreed that the residents of at least eight hotel rooms were renters and not hotel guests.
Others from Neshaminy Inn could soon be added to that list, Trauger said.
With such an agreement, a hotel’s owners would need to bring an eviction case before a district judge to terminate a renter’s agreement and show just cause for removing a tenant.
The hotel still can set new rates for nightly stays and guests or tenants could be evicted for failure to pay the bill or violating some other terms.
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What it's like to live at Neshaminy Inn
The Neshaminy Inn has repeatedly declined to comment after visits to the property and letters left for the hotel management. The hotel’s owners are listed in Bucks County property records as NI Property LLC, which has an address at a residential property in Langhorne.
On Wednesday, Ashwin Panwala identified herself as the owner of the property in court. Panwala did not speak during the hearing and declined to answer questions on exiting the courtroom. Her attorney Bryce H. McGuigan, of Begley Carlin & Mandio, said he was not authorized by his client to answer questions.
Scott and Williams allege unsafe and unsanitary conditions in their rooms at Neshaminy Inn.
In the past year, they said guest rates for the Neshaminy Inn had increased from about $389 to $770 per week ― equal to a rental or a mortgage payment of $3,080 per month.
On its website, Neshaminy Inn lists a junior queen room for $58.56 per night, or $1,756 per month. The jacuzzi suite at Neshaminy Inn goes for $90.09 per night, or $2,702 per month.
That's way more than the average Bucks County resident pays for rent or a monthly mortgage.
A homeowner with a mortgage averaged $2,138 in monthly housing costs, according to a 2019 U.S. Census estimate — 32% above the national average. The average rent was $1,257 per month.
Meanwhile, Bucks County residents with an established disability and no work history can receive a Social Security benefit of up to $794 per month. That figure increased to $841 per month in 2022 and is intended to cover more than just housing expenses.
Bensalem takes Neshaminy Inn to court
Neshaminy Inn describes itself as the "best extended stay hotel in the area."
Officials in Bensalem have used other words to describe the property. In a Nov. 16 preliminary injunction, township officials alleged that the hotel contains such an “immense amount of trash” it poses a danger to first responders who must enter the property on emergency calls.
The economy motel with some long-time residents allegedly had a “hole in the second-floor balcony, which was covered with wood planks and propped up with temporary wooden scaffolding,” according to the legal petition.
The township wants the court’s permission to enter the property, conduct proper inspections, and potentially close all the guest rooms.
Court records suggest Bensalem has spent more than two years trying to get the owners to fix up the property on Route 1. No judge has yet ruled in the case.
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“The room I was in prior had a whole lot of mold,” said Williams, of the unit she shared for six months with children ages two, four, five and seven. “It was sort of like a dungeon. It had no windows.”
Williams said she and her children used to live in Philadelphia, but the former owner of that home passed away and she was forced onto the street.
Kelli Scott said she ended up at the Neshaminy Inn after an abusive relationship. “You feel fear, anguish and shame,” Scott said of her experience with hotel living. “You’re meant to feel a lot of shame when you live like this. You fall into depression, stop caring about your appearance.”
“They tell us not to leave our rooms,” Scott said. “I was made to feel like I was living in jail.”
Neshaminy Inn 'not a solution' for those facing homelessness
Goldblum, of Legal Aid, alleged that the Neshaminy Inn was seeking pandemic-related emergency rental assistance to subsidize rents. If you're going to seek emergency rental assistance, then you have to treat the residents as renters, he argued.
However, Goldblum could also be heard outside the courtroom, telling Scott and Williams that they needed to find better housing arrangements. "This is temporary," he told them. "This is not a solution."
Without the hotel, Williams said she and her children would be living on the street.
"I was thinking I would tow my car to a parking lot," said Scott. "I can maybe just live in the parking lot."
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County judge says Bensalem motel can't evict long-term residents
