CHARLOTTE — Dozens of residents at an extended-stay hotel told Channel 9 they were ordered to leave by noon Monday after it was abruptly sold. But in spite of the looming deadline, one resident is choosing to stay.
The Towneplace Suites Charlotte University Research Park Hotel shut down without giving its residents any notice, and many of them are packing up after they got a letter about it last week.
Families said at first, they found out the Towneplace Suites was being sold to another hotel chain, but were told they would be allowed to stay. But on Wednesday, they found out the hotel will be turned into apartments and were told to leave.
Many residents have lived at the hotel on Research Drive for several years as permanent residents.
“We have no options,” resident Brittany Blake said.
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Many residents, including Mark Munoz, refused to vacate.
“If they want to put us out, they should go through the right standards to do that,” Munoz said.
On Friday afternoon, residents said they could live in the new apartments for $2,400 a month if they pay in full by Monday.
“It’s a bed with a little kitchenette,” a resident said. “That’s it for $2,400.”
One woman, who didn’t want to show her face, said her family of four has nowhere to go.
“There’s families living here and you’re putting them out on the street,” she said.
Blake said her family of six received more than $10,000 in COVID-19 rental assistance funds, which paid their rent at the Towneplace Suites through June. She said they are now being told to leave.
“So I’m supposed to live in the car with my four kids and service dogs?” Blake said. “Is that what we are supposed to do? I don’t know.”
Blake spent her Monday on the phone trying to figure out her next steps but she wasn’t able to get through. The office was closed Monday.
“Nobody can ask questions, nobody can pay the application fee, no one can pay the $2,400 they want for these little studio apartments they haven’t even started renovating yet,” Blake said.
She told Channel 9 she’s planning to stay until this gets sorted out.
“We don’t know where our money is at. I don’t know what it’s being used for,” Blake said.
Channel 9 Reporter Anthony Kustura dug deeper to find that if there is no lease, state law requires only two days’ notice to end a week-to-week agreement.
Still, Blake said it’s not enough time and she won’t be forced out.
“They turned internet off, TVs off, they had the water off on us last week but they turned it back on,” she said.
Several employees, like Ron Little, worked and lived at the hotel. Now he is left without a job and home.
“I shouldn’t have my livelihood ripped from underneath me without the proper notice,” Little said Friday.
Little said he has tried to contact the new company through the email provided in the letter, but they bounced back.
“I’m a resident here,” he said. “I’m not a one-time guest.”
Little said he doesn’t know what to do or where to go.
“Honestly, I don’t have any other choices right now,” he said.
Channel 9 has tried to reach out to the new management company since Friday about the evictions. So far, we have not heard back.
(WATCH BELOW: ‘We have no options’: Extended-stay hotel gives no notice to residents to vacate property)
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