What keeps three generations of single moms stuck in the extended-stay hotel trap?

Denise Parker, 26, worked hard to stay out of the rundown roadside hotels in Clayton County where she spent most of her teen years. When she moved into her own apartment at 17, she made it her mission to stay in stable housing. The birth of her daughter, who’s now six, made that mission more urgent. She didn’t want to struggle like her mother and grandmother, who both spent years in the extended-stay hotel trap, bouncing from hotel to apartment – and then back again, when they couldn’t pay the rent or qualify for a new apartment.

All that changed when Parker lost her new job as a technical support representative for Apple after a surgery. Her employer didn’t accept that she needed two weeks off to recover, since she worked from home, and fired her. With no income, she lost her apartment. 

So Parker found herself in the same place as her mother and grandmother before her— struggling to raise her young daughter in extended-stay hotels where gun violence, sex trafficking, and drug-related crimes are a daily occurrence. 

A generational poverty cycle

Parker’s mother, Tanisha Moreno, 44, never meant to live in extended-stay hotels either. She moved to Georgia at 15 from California to join her mother, Elizabeth Miller, 62, and her five younger siblings, then living in an extended-stay hotel. At 16, Moreno had her first of nine children. She got her own apartment, but eventually she and her family moved back in with her mom and stepfather, Melvin Green, who’d transitioned from extended-stays to an apartment.

Green’s death in 2017 kickstarted a downward spiral for the family. Miller eventually had to give up her home catering business and move out of their apartment, which she said held too many painful memories. Now she receives $251 a month from her husband’s pension plus SNAP benefits for food, which she supplements by panhandling – not sufficient or steady enough income to afford an apartment. 

Moreno, who is still raising six of her nine children, and Miller, who is raising two of her grandsons, are back in the extended-stay trap. After a spell at an extended-stay hotel , Moreno rented an apartment at the dilapidated and dangerous Tara Woods Apartments in Jonesboro. That stay was short-lived; she was evicted after six months for falling behind on rent. At  $1,516 a month, it was far more than she could afford, making $10 per hour at her front-desk job for an extended-stay hotel.

Moreno and her children joined Miller and her two grandsons at Moreno’s daughter, Keyana Moreno’s apartment, bringing three families under one roof. But an eviction looming over her daughter’s head means all three families will have to find somewhere else to go soon.

Meanwhile, Parker and her daughter are living part-time at an aunt’s house. Because of her aunt’s ongoing custody battle for her own grandchildren though, DFACS is a constant visitor. When DFACS schedules an inspection, the two must go. To where? A hotel, if they can afford the $80-$100 daily rate. If not, they may spend the night on the street.

For now, Parker continues to search for a job that will allow her to care for her daughter, who is out of school for the summer and has no other relatives to stay with. 

The extended-stay trap

While a lot of people, like Moreno’s family, may not be able to afford either the up-front costs or the monthly rent for an apartment, they can find the money to pay for a hotel room on a daily or weekly basis, said Michael Waller, the executive director of the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, a law and policy nonprofit advocating for low-income families.

Extended-stay hotels offer stop-gap housing for people who can’t pay two month’s rent plus a security deposit in advance. What’s more, the hotels don’t require a credit check or proof of income. Apartments do – generally 2.5 to three times the rent, with no past evictions. A history of getting kicked out of hotel rooms over late payments doesn’t follow someone like an eviction record does.

Although it’s a lot easier, initially, to get a hotel room, they cost more over time; the high room rates make it difficult to save enough up-front money for an apartment. Miller says she has typically paid $420 per week for an extended-stay room for herself and her two grandsons. At $1,680 per month, that’s a lot higher than the average $1,260 rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Clayton County, according to CoStar Group. 

The income requirements for most apartments prevent Miller’s daughter, Tanisha Moreno, from qualifying, as does her history of evictions. Her $10 per hour front-desk job, even working full time, comes to, at most, $1,730 per month. That would only qualify her for a studio or one-bedroom apartment renting at $575 to $690 per month, almost unheard of in metro Atlanta.

No place for kids

Many low-income single mothers turn to extended-stay hotels until they can find an apartment that will accept them, hoping it’s temporary, said Sue Sullivan, a realtor who volunteers with St. Vincent de Paul Georgia’s motel-to-home program.

The hotel rooms don’t have space for much more than sleeping. Miller brings games like UNO for her grandsons to play with in the hotel, or they play football or basketball outside. Moreno’s kids play on their cellphones or watch TV. But both said the nicer, safer hotels don’t let kids go outside. 

The cheaper, more dangerous hotels do, but the crime at those makes all three moms unwilling to let their children play outside at all. When they check in, they said, it’s a brisk walk to get the children into the room as fast as possible. Even so, their children have all witnessed criminal activities, they said, despite their best efforts. 

Parker is extremely concerned for her and her daughter’s safety. “When people see a mother and her kid, it’s like they target us,” she said. “It’s kind of scary to be at a hotel with just me and my daughter and not have no type of protection. [I’m] scared to go to sleep at night, because I’m scared if somebody might kick in the door.”

“The only people who want to live in these hotels are the drug dealers and the sex traffickers,” Sullivan said. The scant regulations on extended-stay hotels allow the owners to get away with keeping their properties in poor condition, she added. “People who live in hotels, if they do call code enforcement, they’re always concerned they’ll be kicked out.”

Escaping the cycle

Enough space for the kids, a yard, and a place they can call their own. That’s what the three mothers say they want. Miller just wants one bedroom and a kitchen, so she can run her catering business.

“Something that I can call my own,” Moreno said. ”That’s all I ever wanted, is to be comfortable.”

Parker was only concerned with the necessities. “I would just take something where me and my daughter could be comfortable to have our own space and not have to look over our shoulders or be scared to go home,” she said. 

The mothers and local housing advocates agree on a few solutions that could transform the situation for single mothers caught in the extended stay trap: better-paying jobs and affordable childcare; financial literacy coaching and rental assistance; evictions assistance; and access to lower-priced apartments. You can explore each topic below.