PORTLAND, Maine — A hotel in Portland that is being used as housing for asylum seekers was recently cited by city inspectors over numerous health concerns, including infestations of rodents, vermin, and pests.
The city has used Motel 6 on Riverside Street as housing for people seeking asylum and others experiencing homelessness since 2019, City Manager Danielle West said. Recently, the hotel has only been used to support asylum seekers.
City officials told NEWS CENTER Maine that 66 families with children were living at the Motel 6 as of Tuesday.
In 2020, the Motel 6 charged $215 to $225 per night per family paid for by General Assistance vouchers, which amounts to a monthly cost of $6,450 per family, bringing the 2023 total to nearly $10 million. General Assistance is taxpayer funded: Municipalities pay 30 percent of the cost, and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services reimburses cities and towns the other 70 percent.
West said other hotels contracted by the city, including in Freeport and Auburn, charge GA users $90 per night.
"The cost of the hotel has become too much to bear for both the city and the state," West said.
Motel 6 is the only hotel in the city of Portland that has the capacity to house asylum seekers, West said, after all other in-city options had been exhausted.
Maine DHHS changed its licensure of Motel 6 last week, reducing the number of rooms licensed for lodging at that property from 128 to five, because many of those rooms are used for emergency shelter and not lodging.
Because the state is no longer licensing those rooms, the city now must ensure the rooms meet health and safety standards, as well as rental registration requirements.
Portland health officials conducted a safety inspection around March 15, and issued a notice of violations to the owners, Maple Hotel Enterprises, LLC of the following ordinances:
- Section 6-109(e)(3): Regarding rodent and vermin control, and the responsibility of the owner or operator of a dwelling for the extermination of such pests whenever infestation exists in any two or more dwelling units;
- Section 6-151(a)(1): Regarding the required registration of rental units.
Motel 6 is now ordered to correct those violations by July 1, 2024, city staff said.
“As is standard practice and in recognition of a shortage of alternative shelter options, existing occupants will be permitted to remain in place until at least the July 1 deadline,” city spokesperson Jessica Grondin wrote.
Many of the families staying at the hotel have children who are attending local schools, so the city has allowed them to stay in an effort to prevent a major disruption for the students during the school year.
“People who are GA eligible have long used their housing vouchers for emergency shelter at Motel 6 when no other resources are available,” Grondin said in an email to NEWS CENTER Maine. “City staff are working diligently to find and transition these families to more permanent housing as soon as possible.”
People who recently lived at Motel 6 complained of cockroaches, harassment from staff, and insufficient facilities to prepare food. Two families told NEWS CENTER Maine there were only two microwaves for the entire property that were accessible to guests. At one point, there were more than 120 families staying there.
One woman named Joana lived at the hotel with three kids, ages 10, 15, and 17. She said she could not sleep at night because of the cockroaches coming from the ceiling, and hotel staff would enter their room without warning or notification, sometimes in the early-morning hours, and would go through their personal belongings or to require them to immediately get their GA voucher for the month.
“It was stressful living there,” Joana said. “The family shelter was more calm.”
Outside agencies delivered food to the asylum seekers at the motel, she said, but food would often run out. She said hotel staff reportedly kicked people out if they brought in slow cookers or hot plates.
“I wanted to go back to Angola. America was not what I expected,” Joana said. “People suffered there. It was a hard life.”
Another woman, Laurianna, lived there with her 1-year-old and 4-year-old daughters. She said staff did not respect people’s privacy, trying to enter their room at 4 a.m., sometimes rifling through their belongings and throwing items away.
“It felt like a jail,” Laurianna said. “They could kick you out for any reason.”
She is now living in an apartment in Lewiston.
“It has been a terror to live [at Motel 6],” she said.
Diane Destoop, the general manager at the Motel 6, told NEWS CENTER Maine she could not comment on the notice violations.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about," Destoop said when asked about the health inspection report citing rodent and vermin issues and pointed NEWS CENTER Maine to the media line for Motel 6 for further questions.
A spokesperson for Motel 6 responded via email stating:
"Motel 6 is committed to providing clean, comfortable rooms and great service at an affordable rate, and we work hard to ensure a positive guest experience at our locations. Any time we fall short, we work closely with our franchise owners/operators to remedy the situation and ensure they are operating in line with our best-in-class standards."
The spokesperson said the city informed the owner of this Motel 6 in January that their agreement would be ending as the city plans to revert to traditional housing methods, such as shelters.
State law requires municipalities to distribute GA vouchers for applicants who are in an emergency. That law defines an emergency as “requires immediate assistance to meet basic necessities,” such as shelter, medical help, or food. In that emergency, the GA administrator must give the person the GA benefits not later than 24 hours after they have applied.
"That's what we've been complying with and we just really have no other spots for these families to go to," West said. "I do feel, as a municipal official, that we are being taken advantage of in a variety of circumstances because we are between that rock and that hard place."
Cities and towns use their General Assistance budget money to pay for 30 percent of those expenses, and DHHS reimburses municipalities the remaining 70 percent. Taxpayers statewide essentially contribute to those GA funds.
GA provides temporary assistance to cover basic needs when individuals are not eligible for other programs or those programs are insufficient, according to Maine DHHS. The agency said GA was developed more than 40 years ago as a last resort. Assistance is provided through vouchers for basic needs such as food, housing, and medication. GA is administered by municipalities and Tribes and overseen by DHHS, which reimburses 70 percent of eligible costs. Cities and towns pay the remaining 30 percent out of their GA budgets.
During the first 30 days of a person in emergency, the city must accept whatever price a location charges to house someone somewhere using GA funds, West said.
Maine is one of 25 states that operate a GA program.
According to Maine's DHHS, costs for GA increased from $13 million in SFY 2019 to $43 million in 2023, including the state and municipal shares. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising housing costs caused the temporary housing component of GA to increase over tenfold, from $2 million in SFY 2019 to $26 million in SFY 2023.
Some of this increase also relates to a policy change in recent years (PL 2019, Ch. 515), which expanded the definition of a “qualifying emergency” to include homelessness and allows reimbursement for costs exceeding regular program maximums. The Mills Administration also implemented a 2015 law (PL 2015, Ch. 324), which extended GA to those lawfully present or pursuing a process for immigration relief.
West said the city is no longer sending new arriving asylum seekers to Motel 6 and that the city wants to completely decommission it no later than December 2024.
“We’re working to find any available option outside the city,” she said.