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4 GROUNDCOVER NEWS HOUSING JUSTICE JULY 12, 2024 Extended Stay gives eviction notice to long-term resident, twice ALEXANDRA GRANBERG Groundcover contributor On May 24, Elizabeth “Lit” Kurtz, a long-term homeless guest at the Extended Stay America hotel in Ann Arbor, was handed an eviction notice for no reason. She had been paying her fees in full and on time. She never violated any guest rules or did anything else to break her contract with Extended Stay. It was after requesting her tax exemption — which she is legally owed and had received in the past — that the hotel decided to terminate Lit’s contract and ability to continue reservations. Without telling Lit why she was being kicked out and refusing to communicate further with her, the hotel management then called the police to physically remove her. The police instead suggested a seven-day eviction notice that the hotel staff posted on her door. The hotel’s site manager disabled Lit’s keys. She decided to stay in the room and mobilize community support via her social media followers and Washtenaw Camp Outreach (WCO) to put pressure on the hotel. Lit had three demands: that the management come to the table and give her answers, pay her legally owed tax rebate, and allow her to continue reservations at the same rate she had paid previously. Most importantly, she said, “I stayed to begin the discussion about human rights for everyone, not just me.” Over five days, community members put on a mass pressure campaign, making nearly 100 complaints through the hotel’s website and phone line. Finally WCO — in talks with Lit — hand-delivered a letter to the hotel on Friday June 7. In the letter WCO stated Lit’s demands and made an ultimatum: if the hotel management did not contact Lit to communicate in good faith by the following Monday morning, WCO and solidarity organizations would be hosting a press conference outside the hotel about the situation on that same afternoon. This final push to pressure the hotel was successful — initially. The next day, Saturday June 8, the hotel’s general manager Amber King called Lit; she agreed to all three of Lit’s demands and lifted the eviction. With the help of generous community contributions Lit was also able to pay for the days she hadn’t been able to leave the hotel to make money. This concession turned out to be short lived. In the next booking period, despite Amber King’s promise, the hotel charged Lit for the taxes — over $50 more than it would have been with the exemption. Lit refuses to pay her reservation fee until the hotel honors the tax rebate. On June 17 the front desk handed her another seven-day eviction notice. This time they did not disable her keys, so Lit is still able to leave her room. She has since not been able to contact Amber King, and King has not reached out to Lit. The only point of contact has been at the front desk, who is directly going against the word of the general manager. Lit is trying to take her case to the courts on a formal eviction basis. Michigan law does not make it clear when an extended stay hotel guest becomes a tenant, so a legal eviction case would likely be complicated and not necessarily fruitful. Lit Kurtz is facing eviction from Extended Stay. The law and its cruelty allows private establishments like Extended Stay and other hotels to bend contracts and kick people out without reason. However, both Lit and WCO recognize that this is a violation of human rights, starting with the seven-day notice. Seven days is not nearly enough time for anyone to find and make arrangements to move to another safe location after having established long-term residency. Some reviews on Extended Stay’s Facebook page reveal that this is not the first eviction to take place on their property. It will likely not be the last. The short pressure campaign with WCO led to a temporary but material win for Lit. But if this case is resolved, the real victory, in her own words, would be “for my human right to stay housed.” She says the fight is just getting started.  GRANTS PASS from page 2 and presentable when you go to work. Some people can pull themselves up, but it still doesn’t happen overnight and it doesn’t happen without a safe, reliable place to sleep. There is a stark parallel between being homeless and being displaced by war. In war, people are forced to leave their homes by a military system either because soldiers force them at gunpoint, or because their homes were destroyed by weapons of war. In America, people are forced to leave their homes by a capitalist system either by cops forcing them to leave at gunpoint, or just having their tents and belongings destroyed by a bulldozer. In war, people who are displaced are seen as an enemy, in America, the homeless are considered a nuisance, a word not as strong as “enemy” but equally dehumanizing. In war, refugees end up sleeping in tents; in America the homeless do as well, but now that can be disrupted at gunpoint. If you think “gunpoint” is too strong I must remind you, cops carry guns, are not afraid to use them, and have a license to kill. In other words, they are soldiers charged with “protecting and serving” capitalist interests. America has demonstrated a certain hatred towards the homeless. It is seen in other nations that practice genocide. One earmark of genocide is forcing people out of their homes and into the streets where their chances of dying increase. This is the exact same thing the U.S. Supreme Court just did! The reality is that punishing humans for trying to survive is a hate crime. Pay attention to anyone who supports such treatment. The hate is visceral. You can hear it, you can taste it. People who have never wanted for anything stand in judgment of the homeless, find them unworthy and deserving of being exterminated. This is what they mean when they say “the solution to homelessness is a bus ticket out of town.” Or jail. Or death. They don’t care, just get them out of their backyard. What this decision allows for is sinister. Any town, county, state or federal entity can declare homelessness a form of vagrancy and disorderly conduct. This means a person can be picked up for sitting on a bench too long. If you think that doesn’t happen, you’re deluded. It happens every day and now there is no defense you can make against it. If you happen to have a warrant, you can end up in prison, and guess what? Many states still allow chattel slavery. People are owned by the penal system and forced labor is not considered cruel and unusual. But it doesn’t stop with the homeless. The sayings “one paycheck away from losing housing” or “one car breakdown away from losing a job” describe real situations. The working poor (including myself when I had a job but nowhere to live) have never been so at risk from becoming refugees of war. If you lost that job because the car broke down and now you don’t have that check to pay rent, your chances of becoming homeless are near 100%. You may end up sleeping on the street; literally, this is how it happens. Then people can be fined for trespassing and punished by incarceration. This is business as usual in America. The Supreme Court of the United States has created an atmosphere so similar to genocidal nations that their decision could be taken as a declaration of war against the homeless. The poor must take it that way. Americans have kicked the last refuge out from under our feet. We must unite against this passive-aggressive attack. Wake up. The rich have always despised the poor, have always seen us as disposable cattle, and have always resented having to pay us to produce the wealth they enjoy. Technology replaces wage slaves everyday. Now they want to incarcerate us. And guess what? Prisons are so poorly managed that you may contract a disease or simply be killed by a fellow inmate. Homelessness can be a death sentence if it leads to prison. Since it is now illegal to be homeless anywhere, catching charges for trespassing on federal land can result in a felony punishable by prison according to our Constitution. The song “Talkin’ ‘bout a Revolution” by Tracy Chapman has a line that goes “poor people gonna rise up and get their share. Poor people gonna rise up and take what’s theirs.” It is time.

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