Man says motel turned him away because he is blind

A motel in Gaston County is accused of turning away a man who is blind and was homeless, which prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice. Channel 9′s Dan Matics spoke with the man who said he was trying to rent a room to get off the streets when he was discriminated against.

Joseph Flowers currently has a home to rent in Gaston County after trying to find a place to live in December.

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Cellphone video taken by Flowers’ friend shows him being turned away in December by the Express Inn and Suites in Gastonia.

“She automatically started saying, ‘Nope. Nope. Nope. We aren’t going to rent him no room,’” Flowers told Matics.

After being turned away, Flowers contacted his social worker with the state Division of Services for the Blind.

The social worker informed the motel they were breaking disability laws, but Flowers said the motel didn’t care.

“That’s like telling me you’re not going to rent me a room because of my color or my sex or something,” Flowers said. “I can’t help it because I’m blind. My money is as green as anybody else’s.”

The motel’s owner has not responded to Channel 9 but told the Gaston Gazette they were concerned about him renting upstairs and they had nothing else available.

“Making assumptions like assuming a blind individual can’t navigate independently or can’t go up and down stairs, those types of assumptions are discriminatory,” said Holly Stiles, who is Disability Rights North Carolina’s assistant legal director of litigation.

Flowers’ social workers with the state filed a formal complaint against the motel with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

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