Last Tuesday morning, the City of Seattle Attorney's office, directed by Mayor Greg Nickels' office, issued a press release, showed up unannounced with a combination of 12 SPD officers, lieutenants, and sergeants, city council members, DCLU representatives, relocation representatives, code-compliance representatives, and housing-enforcement representatives. They knocked on every door of my five motel buildings, telling all of my tenants and all of my resident employees to move out by 12:00 noon Wednesday and they were all eligible for $3,000.00 each in cash relocation assistance (which is then forcibly paid by me) to move "because of unpaid utilities." The utility company had not issued shut-off notices indicating payment needed to be made by 5:00 that same day. Later that day, the Relocation Office called with a tentative bill of $106,000 in cash assistance I would need to pay if all applications were received and approved. They indicated 30 people had already turned in applications that afternoon.
I paid the utility bills within hours, still unsure and confused as to what was really going on. My guests were also upset and confused, and some also moving out. The buildings are operating as their legal use, which has been hotel/motel since they were built. This was obviously a politically motivated and an organized "assault" on our tenants, staff, and me. This was by anyone's standards a total abuse of government authority and power.
The city has acknowledged its intention to use every tool available to close the motels. I am a target because I have five. My response to the charges is that of bewilderment, confusion, and disbelief that the city intends to use such force and scare tactics to close my legally operating businesses. I have always made myself very available to the city, the police department, and the neighbors to discuss any of their concerns. I have not received any complaints, phone calls, or e-mails for a very long time indicating anyone was concerned about any of the properties. To me, not getting complaints, phone calls, and/or e-mails is a signal these people are happy, as they have made contact in the past to initiate discussion, and I have always responded.
Shelter is a basic human need. Seattle is an expensive city. People come to low-rent motels after evictions, on public assistance, with children, who are homeless, and often times this type of shelter is someone's last stop before sleeping on the street. To be sure, there are problems on Aurora and my motels are not "The Four Seasons," but I see it day in and day out: There is a great need for this type of shelter.
Criminal activity at the motels is simply not tolerated. The police are called and suspicious activity is reported, left to the proper authorities to handle. Unfortunately, sometimes alcohol and substance abuse are problems when people have nothing. Many of my guests routinely spend nights on the street, hoping to scrape up enough money to purchase a room for a night, which brings them safety, a warm bed, and a hot shower. When someone purchases a room for a night, they have also purchased privacy and the space is theirs to use. Should they choose [to] abuse drugs or alcohol behind their door[, that] is out of my control. I simply will not discriminate and have had many conversations with the city and the police to this effect. In addition to the police department's list of people I "should not rent to," I also keep my own. When guests cause problems at the motel, they are added to the list and not rented to again.
It has been quoted there were over 460 police calls but just 32 arrests. I understood the reports to also state that these calls included the surrounding neighborhoods, so I am not really sure what the true number is as it relates to my motels. I do know, however, that those 460 calls were not all for drug and prostitution activity, as people call police for all kinds of reasons, including domestic issues/disputes, medical issues, etc. I recall one instance when my manager went to a guest's room who was mentally impaired to find out why the person kept dialing 911 over and over again (she could see this from her office phone). I would also like to point out that this call count includes calls made by motel staff reporting suspicious activity, as the police had requested I do, and that I was assured that no call made by the motel would ever be "counted against me," but instead looked upon as my cooperation to control problems.
My motels cater to the homeless, struggling, and less fortunate in Seattle. The neighbors like to talk about how much they "care about the less fortunate," but in fact at the same time say "not in my backyard." One neighbor responded to the plight of our guests stating "that's what shelters are for." The neighbors call the police with sightings of "bad people" walking through their neighborhoods from the motels (which in many cases means they walk from the motel on Aurora to the west, [to] the stores and markets, since very few can afford transportation).
