Hotel Homelessness

We're a part of the homeless population that gets ignored, or treated as having "housing"

Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent it, as well as well as the early part of the morning worrying about how I’m going to pay for my hotel room. See, I’m homeless and I can’t access traditional housing because I owe a property 4k that I have been trying to save to pay off with much failure, and no leasing company/landlord will give me a chance when they see it. However, I’ve been managing to pull money together to stay in a hotel for several months now, which is around damn near 2k a month.

If I can afford or scrape it together for a hotel, I can afford to live in housing.

There are so many people out there living in this same situation. We’re in hotels for some reason because traditional housing has failed us, or we are no contact with family due to trauma and abuse and just can’t live with them.

I refuse to live with my mother again. She is the reason I have the issues I have as an adult, and she preyed upon her own younger brother. I am the only one in the family that knows her nasty secret because she told me like that was something normal to share with her child. Every single man my mother has been with was much younger than her. I don’t remember her ever dating or being involved with a man her own age, even my sister’s father was younger than her.

But back to my main point, there are so many people who are homeless in hotels these days. There are at least two single mothers with children staying in the hotel I live in, and it is probably because they don’t have the means to get traditional housing like an apartment or house. I have even spoken to one of the mothers saying that she’s been stuck living in hotels since her children’s father died by suicide, leaving her with nothing but a struggle to care for them and keep them off the street.

I know of people who are struggling living with an elderly parent who have to rely on hotels for housing, they have to struggle a lot because while their parent can help sometimes with funds, the pressure of keeping them housed falls on them. Then there’s another person I know who’s black like I am, and she is struggling to get funds.

In mutual aid communities, it is that much harder for black people to get help, mainly because of racism. People think we’re choosing to be in the situations we end up in, and I can say I did not choose this. I would rather be living in an apartment or house over living in a hotel. The last month of the year is the hardest for everyone I know living in a hotel because people are tied up with paying for Christmas gifts on top of their own needs, so funds are strapped and it is hard to donate to other people.

Other things we face is the fact that asking for help with food is extremely difficult. I have been told by so many people to just “Go to a food pantry” and that’s hard in itself because food pantries for many of us aren’t easy to get to, plus they provide not hotel friendly food. (If you live in an extended stay with a kitchen, that’s a good place to go but for those living in hotels where they don’t allow hot plates for cooking, getting food is difficult. You have to survive off things that can be microwaved only. No home cooking, none of that unless you can make it in a microwave.

Also, people think we don’t have jobs or choose to not work. I have a job, and every dime I get goes to keeping a roof over my head and my phone bill paid. I can’t communicate with work without my phone. I have a part-time job as an assistant manager at a retail store. Could I try to get a job that pays better? Yes, but the thing is a lot of jobs still don’t have access to the pay you get every day. Which means I could end up outside waiting for a paycheck, which would be bad for me because I would have to live outside until I get that check in hand. Services like Daily Pay help a lot with surviving living in a hotel while homeless.

I am very curious about the stories of others who are stuck in this situation, and I have made a form so they can tell me. I want to share people’s stories to get more awareness out there about people who live in hotels, because this is an issue that isn’t really talked about.

I want to hear from you! (Link to form!)