Extended-stay hotels, a growing option for poor families, can lead to health problems for children

As principal of Dunaire Elementary School, Sean Deas has seen firsthand the challenges children face in extended-stay hotels. About 10% of the students at his school, just east of Atlanta, live in a school.

The children, Deas said, are often exposed to violence on hotel grounds, exhibit aggression or fear because they live in a crowded single room, and face food insecurity because some hotel rooms do not have kitchens.

“Social trauma is the biggest challenge” when students first arrive, Deas said. “We hear a lot about sleep problems.” To meet the students’ needs, Deas developed a school-wide program that includes counselors, a food pantry and special protocols for dealing with people who might fall asleep in class.

“Besides the teaching, there is a social component,” he said. “We have to find ways to support the families as well.”

Extended stay hotels are often a last resort for low-income families looking for housing. Nationally, more than 100,000 students were living in extended-stay hotels in 2022, according to the Department of Education, though officials say that’s likely a subsample.

Children living in hotels are considered homeless under federal law, and in some Atlanta-area counties, about 40% of homeless students live in this type of housing, according to local officials.

And with rising rents and evictions, and reduced access to federal public housing, the use of extended-stay hotels as a long-term option is becoming more frequent. Like other forms of homelessness, hotel life can lead to or worsen physical and mental health problems for children, say family advocates and researchers who study homelessness.

In the Atlanta area, inspections of extended-stay hotels have revealed ventilation problems, insect infestations, mold and other health threats. Children living there may also experience or witness crime and gun violence. The increasing use of extended-stay hotels is a warning sign and a reflection of the lack of sufficient affordable housing policies in the US, according to observers.

And the crisis has “lifelong consequences,” says Sarah Saadian of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “The only way we can truly address that shortage is if significant federal resources are available at scale. Build more housing and bridge the gap between rents and wages.”

Often, evictions force families to move to hotels, leaving them stuck there. Many landlords refuse to rent to people with evictions in their credit history, even if the tenant is not responsible for the displacement, says Joy Monroe, founder and CEO of the Single Parent Alliance & Resource Center, or SPARC, a metro nonprofit. . Atlanta, which has helped hundreds of families move from hotels to apartments or rental properties.

Black women and other women of color, often with children, are being evicted from their homes at much higher rates and are more likely to end up in extended-stay hotels, advocates say.

Some residents are also families fleeing domestic violence, they say.

Hotels often do not require security deposits, application fees or background checks, providing families seeking shelter with immediate assistance. While there are more expensive options, the average rate for an extended-stay economy class room was $56.68 per night through the first three months of 2024, according to the Highland Group, a research firm that focuses on the hotel industry – which works through more than € 1,700 per month.

And while the rooms offer a reprieve from other forms of homelessness — such as sleeping in a car or in a tent — a hotel is “not a place to raise children,” says Michael Bryant, CEO of New Life Community Alliance, which helps families in South Dekalb, a part of metro Atlanta, helps move from hotels to homes.

Children living in hotels often fall behind on vaccinations and can end up in emergency rooms due to delays in care, said Gary Kirkilas, a pediatrician in Phoenix who helps children, teens and families who are currently homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. . About 75% of the children with unstable housing he sees have at least one developmental delay, and others experience significant emotional and behavioral problems.

Tanazia Scott, who has spent months bouncing between two extended-stay hotels, says her three children “feel depressed and angry” about hotel life.

An eviction forced Cassandra Norman, 58, and her two daughters to stay in hotels in the Atlanta area for months. For three months they slept in a car outside a supermarket. “It’s hard to do homework in a car and in a hotel,” said 19-year-old Kazuri Taylor, Norman’s youngest daughter.

Some hotels are banning children from playing outside in their parking lots, creating additional stress, advocates say. That’s what got Yvonne Thomas, 45, and her family kicked out of an extended-stay hotel in DeKalb County. She said, “They sent us away for nothing.”

And there are even more problems. More than a dozen students at Dunaire Elementary live in an extended-stay property called Haven Hotel. In August, the DeKalb County Code Enforcement Division said the hotel had “failed to maintain minimum life safety standards.” Cockroaches and spiders live in rooms and hallways, according to state health inspection reports. Residents say they have to pay $1 for a roll of toilet paper.

The hotel’s owner and manager could not be reached for comment after several attempts.

“No one is talking about these families,” said Sue Sullivan, a community advocate and volunteer with the Motel to Home coalition in Atlanta, who brings toys, school bags, food and toiletries on her hotel visits.

A February public health inspection at another DeKalb County hotel found several rooms with poor ventilation, insect infestations and mold, among other potential health threats. Two people were shot there in May.

Children who witness violence can develop anxiety, depression and other disorders, says Charles Moore, director of the Urban Health Initiative at Emory University School of Medicine. “They can feel emotional aftershocks,” said Moore, who has visited hotels in the Atlanta area.

However, closing such hotels could hurt families given the shortage of affordable housing, the lack of federal tenant protections nationwide and a shortage of places to go, said Terri Lewinson, an associate professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice . . Extended-stay hotels “provide an accessible option for families who have no other options,” she said.

To alleviate the housing problem, county officials and nonprofits across the country have creatively filled the void. In the Seattle area, for example, King County officials bought hotels and converted them into affordable housing, according to Mark Skinner of the Highland Group.

In metro Atlanta, SPARC and the local United Way’s Motel to Home are offering financing to help people transition to an apartment.

In DeKalb County, where Dunaire Elementary School is located, more than a third of the 1,300 homeless students live in hotels, according to Commissioner Ted Terry.

“I hope we can save the children,” he said. “It’s not a safe environment for them.”

Advocates who want to help people living in hotels are proposing the construction of more affordable housing and stronger protections for renters against eviction. The federal government has failed to invest in repairs needed to maintain current social housing, and 25-year-old legislation effectively prohibits the construction of new social housing.

It is also “extremely quick, easy and cheap” to evict tenants in Georgia, said Taylor Shelton, an associate professor of geosciences at Georgia State University, whose research focuses on social inequality and urban spaces. “The playing field is strongly focused on landlords.”

Under such circumstances, the cycle of poverty is difficult to break, said Jamie Rush, senior staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Most parents want their children to live in a safe, stable home,” Rush says. “You can’t pay your way out of poverty.”

KFF Health News 2024. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.