‘Hellish’ conditions reported from Charlotte hotel facing sudden closure

Trevia Moyo was leaning against the door of her room at the Southern Comfort Inn in west Charlotte Thursday, behind her were her six children, crowded around the two beds the family shares.

They moved to the extended stay hotel about a year ago from a domestic violence shelter. Now, their lives are upended again, Moyo learned just 24 hours earlier.

She learned their fate when TV stations broke the news that the property’s manager had notified city officials of the inn’s imminent closing. After nearly two years of city leaders and nonprofit organizations attempting to help the inn stay open amid mounting financial trouble, this week’s development means that the 80 families, many of whom have young children, have until June 30 to move.

“Where? I do not know,” Moyo said, voice deep, as her braids fell alongside her dark freckled skin and somber eyes.

The closure comes on the heels of repeated complaints about living conditions, some of which city records obtained by The Charlotte Observer last week show have been unsolved in the last two years. The inn, which rents rooms on a weekly and monthly basis, functions more like apartments than a hotel. Since complaints in late 2020 about broken appliances, water damage and infestations of roaches, rodents and bed bugs, repairs unaddressed have been accruing fines of $100 per day, city records show.

In April, property manager Traci D. Canterbury Jones notified the city the business had no money to make further repairs and resolve the complaints filed with city code enforcement. Last month, Jones’ letter to the Charlotte City Council — mentioned by Mayor Vi Lyles at Tuesday’s city council meeting — said too many residents are severely behind on rent payments and the business can’t pay its bills.

While exasperated residents bemoan the inn’s gruesome state of sanitation and debilitating infrastructure, many have yet to figure out where they will move.

The city says they aim to find housing solutions for each household by June 30. They have partnered with nonprofit organization United Way of the Central Carolinas to assist people, but Moyo said that United Way told her they did not have sufficient availability to find her and her kids somewhere to live.

“Chaotic” is the word Moyo used to describe her time at the inn, located on Tuckaseegee Road about 15 minutes west of uptown. Even with her disability benefits and her oldest son’s income, rent is a constant struggle.

Moyo has been trying to leave the inn for several months because of poor conditions, as have most of the residents the Observer spoke with last week. She and others say complaints to building management about repairs and need for maintenance have gone unanswered.

She applied for subsidized housing, but there is a three-year waiting list. Perhaps, she hopes, the inn’s closure will expedite the process.

Southern Comfort Inn is the latest example of residents forced out of their homes on short notice as Charlotte and the greater region continue to grapple with a persistent lack of affordable housing and development pressures. Just days before Jones’ letter to city leaders announcing the inn was due to close, representatives from support agencies and local government met with residents from the Sterling neighborhood facing a similar fate.

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Fallen ceilings and bites on faces

Southern Comfort Inn residents this week told of ongoing maintenance and cleanliness problems: Ceilings have fallen. Holes pervade the walls. Toilets are clogged. So are the sinks. Mold is commonly found. And bugs have left people with varying illnesses, including some who point to clusters of bite marks and scars on their faces.

Sarah McGill, age 56, shares a room with her brother, Leroy McKinney, who is 54. They both use income from disability benefits to pay their rent, which is $700 per month for a one-bedroom hotel with a bathroom and two beds.

She pointed to a gaping hole in her shower wall, partially repaired with Styrofoam jammed inside, held on by tape. Above it, a second hole near the shower head is also partially still gaping, covered with a piece of board sagging from the ceiling.

“You can make a complaint about this or that but they don’t fix nothin’,” said McGill.

Her arms are covered in dark spots from both new and old bed bug bites. Her brother lifted his mattress to reveal hundreds of bugs crawling beneath the bed, infesting the place where he sits all day, and sleeps all night.

“Especially late at night, when you turn that light out, they come biting me,” said his sister.

Barry Bynum, a 64-year-old veteran, leaned on his walker, recounting how one day “hundreds” of cockroaches invaded his room.

For Bynum, living at the inn has been “hellish. Terrible.”

In the corner of the inn across from Bynum, a man lifted a cigarette above his thin red beard and chin piercing just outside his room. “DAD: THE TOUGHEST JOB YOU’LL EVER HAVE,” read his army green shirt. The man told the Observer he’s been the maintenance supervisor at the inn for eight years but asked to not have his name published. A second maintenance employee has worked sporadically throughout the years, but for the most part, he’s been on his own, he said. Built in 1972, the building has descended into decay and the maintenance worker acknowledged upkeep is difficult while serving 200 residents.

Like everyone else, he learned about the closure by seeing it on the news.

He’s seen how costly it is to keep the property and utilities running, so he understands the closure. Left jobless, he will either move with his kids to Texas or return to work at the Chippewa reservation where he’s from, in Michigan.

A long time coming

This is not the first time residents have faced threats of closure. The hotel almost closed in May 2021, when Jones told WSOC-TV that the business owed about $80,000 in unpaid bills. At the time, the hotel dispatched letters demanding payment.

This time, though, it’s real. Shock has permeated throughout the motel this week as residents have disbursed the news through word-of-mouth.

In her letter, Jones pointed to their inability to evict residents during the pandemic, which has led to today’s financial strain. The city of Charlotte has allocated $340,000 in rental support through the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) programs, but there are not enough funds to cover the mounting losses.

The city tasked United Way with administering the funds, and now, the nonprofit is working with 37 families to find housing based on their individual needs. Options might include similar extended stay hotels, housing programs, or the shelter system. So far, they have found potential solutions for 10-15 families, according to Kathryn Firmin-Sellers from United Way. McGill and her brother are among them. They will move to affordable housing designated for senior citizens.

“I’m just ready to go,” sighed McGill, as she looked at her dilapidated shower.

So are most of her neighbors. Yet, many of them confront a devastating reality: They don’t want to be where they are now, but they have no idea where to go next.