SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 SHELTER Victory Inn shutdown upends the most vulnerable On Sept. 3, the Victory Inn on Washtenaw Ave. was shut down for severe code and health violations. The City of Ann Arbor responded to a variety of recent complaints about the inexpensive hotel by demanding that the building be shut down. A posted sign from a Building Official said, "DANGER This Structure Is Declared Unsafe For Human Occupancy Or Use." The hotel has a history of problems, including traditional code violations, the death of an employee due to carbon monoxide poisoning in 2023 and accusations about human trafficking and drug overdose deaths which resultd in a suit to close the building permanently in 2018. Owned by Jimmy Garmo of Southfield-based U.S. 23 Lodge LLC, the Victory Inn motel is at the corner of Washtenaw and U.S. 23, one of the most high traffic areas in Ann Arbor. Due to further code violations and as a resolution to the 2018 suit, the motel building is scheduled to be replaced with a modern building and new branding — turning into the Staybridge Suites and Holiday Inn Express. Many homeless/housing-insecure people were impacted by the Sept. 3 condemnation. One of them I met at Bridge Community Cafe; her name is Brittany. Brittany is a 20-year-old woman who was living at the Victory Inn. The room was being paid for by a mentor. According to management, the building was also being shut down that week to begin the construction. No one told Brittney or Molly, her mentor. I asked Brittany for an interview. GCN: Tell me a little bit about your past, whatever you're comfortable with sharing. Brittany: I grew up in a toxic household where every day my mom and my dad was fighting. My mom even tried to kill herself in front of us. GCN: Sorry to hear that. That's rough. Brittany: My dad died when I was 11. I went into foster care when I was eight years old. Then I got out when I was 17. Recently, I was placed in jail for assault. That's pretty much about me, I'm just wild in some ways. GCN: Well, you're 20, of course you're going to be a little wild. Tell me about your stay at Victory Inn. Brittany: Monday afternoon, I went to Victory Inn, me and my mentor got the room for a few days, her name's Molly. GCN: Are you calling them mentor and then a job. Commissioner Sara HammerJIM CLARK Groundcover vendor No. 139 because they were assigned to you from an agency or is it just somebody that knows you that's helping you out? Brittany: She's happy to help out. GCN: So you and your mentor went to Victory Inn and what happened? Brittany: She paid for the room, it was all cool, nobody said anything about it being shut down. The next morning (Tuesday), I left to run some errands. I come back around 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I walked in and immediately the worker said I had to go. I was like, why do I need to leave? They said the building's being shut down. GCN: They let you get your stuff but you said they didn’t offer your mentor a refund? Brittany indicated they did not. Molly was owed $380. GCN: Did they give you any reason why they were keeping your money? Brittany: No. GCN: So you said you were evicted that day? Brittany: Yes, Tuesday afternoon. GCN: What did you do that night? Brittany: I called Molly and she got me a room at Harmony House. GCN: So you haven't had to sleep on the street? Brittany: No. GCN: What's next? Brittany: I'm in a hotel room provided by Ozone House. I plan on getting an apartment through Ozone, schmidt said in an MLive article the building [Victory Inn motel] was "less than desirable." “The city took action in court in 2018 to try to shut it down, citing a history of prostitution, human trafficking and numerous police dispatches to the hotel, which the city deemed a public nuisance and threat to public safety. “The city agreed to drop its case in 2019 after getting cooperation from the hotel with efforts to decrease crime on the property, increasing daily rates, scrapping hourly renting, requiring identification at check-in and adding security measures. That led to a decrease in calls for police service and a decrease in severity of calls, the city attorney’s office said in 2019.” (MLive. com “Plans to raze, construct new hotel approved for Ann Arbor’s Victory Inn site” Jun. 26, 2024) It did lead to a reduction in the number and severity of calls, at least for a time, but at the expense of housing-insecure members of our community. What stood out was that increasing daily rates was a strategy in their crime reduction plan. This serves to also exclude individuals who aren’t using the space to commit survival crimes but need the low rate for survival. Independent sex workers are also impacted by increased rates and the elimination of hourly rates. However, sex traffickers might not be deterred by higher prices. The minimum need for human shelter is warmth/climate control, safety from imminent danger, privacy, access to showers, laundry and toilet, and reliability. Motels do all of that. Motels with low rates are an essential resource for shelter. But business is business, including pricing people out of the motel option by raising rates. On September 3, the Victory Inn was declared unsafe for human occupancy or use, displacing people relying on low rates for shelter. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 5
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