The Motel 6 in Portland has lost the lodging licenses for all but five of its rooms due to health violations, five years after it began taking in homeless people and illegal immigrants, according to Portland officials.
“There were what I can only assume were homeless people walking in to use the microwave and drink the free coffee. There were shady people loitering in the parking lot and lobby. There was what I believe to be a social worker filling out forms with and handing out food and supplies to homeless people in the lobby. When we arrived the bathroom floor was wet with human hair spread out over the floor,” said one 2021 review of the location on TripAdvisor.
Following a March health inspection, the city determined that the motel is infested with cockroaches, and revoked the lodging licenses for all but five of its 128 rooms.
The company is required to remedy the living conditions of the 123 unlivable rooms by July 1, but the immigrants living in those rooms currently will be allowed to stay until then.
One immigrant staying in the hotel told News Center Maine that the living conditions were so bad that she wanted to go back to her home country of Angola.
Homeless people, then later immigrants, have been referred to the motel by city officials since 2019, as the Motel 6 is one of the few hotels in the area that accepts General Assistance tokens.
General assistance is a taxpayer funded program which gives money for necessities, such as housing, to those who can’t afford them.
As of 2020, each family staying in the motel cost taxpayers $225 per night.
According to information provided to News Center Maine, 66 families were staying in the hotel as of Tuesday, meaning that, every year that the motel houses that many families, taxpayers pay $5,108,400.
At its peak, the building housed 120 families.
Correction: Added clarification that the Portland Motel 6 has not been entirely closed down.
