What happens when a motel becomes home

[rug]

By Kai Ryssdal and Robert Garrova
November 02, 2016 | 2:44 PM

The role of the roadside motel has changed over the years from an inexpensive place to stay when traveling to a place some people feel they cannot escape because they have nowhere else to go.

These residential motels as their known caught the eye of Kent State sociology Professor Christopher Dum. He decided to live in a motel he calls The Boardwalk for a year and listen to the stories of the people who live there.

Dum's new book compiling these stories is titled "Exiled in America: Life on the Margins in a Residential Motel.”

Note: the names of people and places Dum uses are pseudonyms.

https://www.marketplace.org/2016/11/02/world/what-happens-when-motel-becomes-home

Audio at link.

[niyad]

1. this is a professional article, and the writer does not know the difference between "their"

and "there are"??

have seen some motel rooms that are actually larger than studios. the benefit is no credit check, no deposit, no first, last and security.

we have to do something truly helpful for all these people.

[rug]

3. Blame it on the proofreader.

Most of these motels are no prize. Did you hear the part about the routine code violations? In the smaller, rural counties with minimal social services, these hotels are the shelters.

[padfun]

2. Writers should know better

These residential motels as their known

Should be

These residential motels as they're known

That's a pretty big error to me. I mean, for an article at some blog.

[rug]

4. Geez, people are starving.

[niyad]

5. and we can still notice, and comment, on a lack of literacy.

[rug]

6. You are also free to polish caskets.

[niyad]

7. wow-- such a charming response.

[virgogal]

8. Refugees are put in apartments------why aren't these people? I don't get it.

[rug]

9. I really think it's budgetary.

It's easier to have a contract with a motel, using the operating budget, than to use the capital budget to build apartments.

They don't give a shit.

[virgogal]

10. The refugees are treated like royalty by

Catholic Charities,and other groups-------that's what I don't understand.

Just infuriating.

http://www.ccab.org/?q=refugee-services

[rug]

11. I don't begrudge them. But I have no sympathy for the governments' housing policies.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

12. The simple fact is that our entire economy is based on debt

The government is working to keep it that way and expand it. Tax money could easily be used to build affordable housing but then there would be a drop in average housing prices due to the reduced demand and no mortgages to profit the bankers. The government secured loans backed by FHA (and other programs) generate revenue, government jobs and ensure that the mortgage market continues to grow.

In most states hotels/motels are taxed heavily often close to or at 15%. There is time period after which the facility is treated as a residence and the tax is no charged. In areas (large cities like Los Angeles county) where many are homeless or close to it there is also the problem that once you establish residence, the courts become involved in removing those who don't/won't/can't pay. Hotels and motels often won't let you stay to establish residence, at least not "officially". The time to establish residence is between 30 and 90 days. Often these places have rooms that are 400 - 600 sq. ft. and have 2 queen size beds. They're furnished, include utilities and have housekeeping service.

There ought to be a program finance these places followed by a transition to an even lower priced more residential place.

The American dream is a 3-4 bedroom 2+ bath house. Those that have them are paying dearly for them in both sales price and mortgage interest. Once housing become affordable, many folks with mortgages find themselves with homes worth less than they paid.

[rug]

13. There's a lot of truth in that.

It seems designed to drive us into debt.

Now, it's tens of thousands in student debt.

If you get past that, it's hundreds of thousands more for a mortgage which will last your working life.

Then you're a prisoner of your pension, if any, and your SS check.

All the while they get richer and we grow more mute.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

14. Debt is the true enemy here

Mortgages make up about 75% of all personal debt in the US, now estimated at a bit over $14 trillion. Second after mortgages are student loans at almost $1.4 trillion. That makes up about 8% of US personal debt.

We have almost 25 million folks in the workforce who aren't unemployed that pay no taxes. So that means 24,999,999 people work but don't even make enough to owe taxes on their earnings. (The other 1 is trump.)

Why are almost 1 in 6 workers underemployed?

Now I'm more depressed.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

18. I honestly think the real problem is television advertizing.

If you watch conventional TV, you see a ton of ads, many of which assure you that your life will be much better (and you'll be prettier/handsomer/smarter) if you only use your credit card to buy luxury goods. It's scary.

There's also a firm presumption that all children in a family absolutely must have their own bedroom. Really? I'm one of six children, three boys, three girls, and we had a girl's bedroom and a boy's bedroom. Three of us in each. And they were small. Beds were shared. It wasn't a disaster or a tragedy.

And people can make better decisions about debt. Take cars. Honestly, you should only have a car loan for your very first car. You settle on one you can afford, preferably used, make as large a down payment as possible, and manageable payments for two, or at the most three years. When the car is paid off, you continue to bank those payments until it's time for a replacement. At this point, you figure out the trade-in value of your car and how much money you've save, and that's what you spend on your next car. Continue to bank that original car payment.

I've long been astonished that so many people assume a hefty car loan payment is simply a part of life. Really? Why?

[Riftaxe]

15. Thanks Rug

article speaks for itself, yet loses half the fear.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

16. I lived for 3months in a motel 6

Because my sisters sold the house I was supposed to inherit. Mom made a stupid financial move,bought a house in Galax that was on a flood plane,in a very poor isolated town, when she bought it she was 85. She had a 30 year mortgage She declined quickly and my aunt takes care of her now.
What kind of fuckface gives a 30 year mortgage on a piece of shit house to someone 85 years old?
A scummy brokerage.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. She probably got the 30 year mortgage because her income

was sufficient to pay it.

Many years ago I was shocked that my mother, then 60 years old, got a 30 year mortgage. She was still working and had enough income. Fast forward several decades, and I likewise got a 30 year mortgage at age 60.

Was the mortgage granted by a bank? Or some other entity?

[mntleo2]

19. The Problem is ...

...there is no other place to stay except on the street ~ and being unhoused is being criminalized.

All of the following are reasons, often a combination, to become homeless: High rents, low housing availability, low wages, having kids, high childcare costs (even with the barely funded kind), house fires (yes this is a thing where even with "insurance" the housing scarcity is so bad, families are left bereft), serious illness, job injuries, and even reformed former felons.

Look I do not dare say why or I will be banned here, but suffice it to say this all began with Welfare DEFormed in the mid 1990s. And it was not just some heartless conservatives, a huge number of libs also hated the poor. (dare I say, I was here then) even on this forum, pure hatred.

Listen: Poverty is an INISTITUTION. Definition of institution is from Websters: "...an organization, establishment, foundation, society, or the like, devoted to the promotion of a particular cause or program, especially one of a public, educational, or charitable character..." Hear that again, it is an "establishment," meaning it is well wedged into our societies so we have little or no reason to actually abolish it. Even though the greatest sages in the world knew that abolishing poverty is something that could be done indeed it is possible.

Many hate to admit it but all classes, depend upon the poor for their needs, their jobs, their costs. From the medical fields, social services, financial institutions, especially non-profits, these all depend on homeless "wittle baybees" for their own comforts, affordable living, and their incomes. Why would they want to abolish poverty then?

Here is a sad example. Goodwill Industries. They supposedly "train" low income people and felons for employment. Did you know that they fought with $millions in court so they only had to pay $.17 (that is 17 CENTS) an hour? Do you know they get in donations and sales about $68,000 per client, but spend less than $6000 per client?

Nobody ever thinks to ask, "Hey there, what is happening to the other $62,000?" Well I have asked and it isn't pretty. But again I do not dare say where it goes because well,telling the truth is not always wanted. Just say a whole lot of upper classes benefit, using them for tax breaks, for their own professional employments, for the disabled funding given, and sadly even other low income people find it the few places they can afford to get their clothing and household goods, and even the garbage collectors make money off them.

I am saying the reasons are huge and no simple or workable solutions are available. However it is important to raise the consciences of those who prefer to keep their lack of knowledge in order to pretend not to see their own dependencies. They are not bad, just clueless, and yeah they WANT to stay that way but who wouldn't if they actually saw their part in this imposed misery? However again sunshine on The Truth is all it could take for most, for those with a decent consciences.

Those in deep poverty do know the truth ~ but they are never heard. How can anyone hate an institution when it is deeply embedded in their own lives? Until the institution is hated we will continue to place the unhoused in motels...

Just sayin' ...

Cat in Seattle ~ Poverty Scholar and Member of The Poor People's Campaign

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

20. I'm currently about halfway through that book.

It's quite interesting mainly because it's about people I never come in contact with in my regular life.