The Southern Poverty Law Center is supporting an appeals lawsuit against an extended stay motel after a judge ruled they improperly evicted several long-time residents.
The lawsuit involves the Efficiency Lodge in south DeKalb County, which was once co-owned by former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and his brother Ray Barnes. The extended stay motel chain, which has 15 locations in Georgia and Florida, is currently owned by Ray Barnes.
The Atlanta Legal Aid Society sued the Efficiency Lodge last September on the behalf of three former residents who were behind on their rent payments and told to leave — sometimes at gunpoint. The lawsuit argued the evictions were illegal since the motel’s management did not go through the formal court eviction process. Instead, the motel used private, armed security guards to evict the residents.
“There are many others — especially historically disenfranchised Black and Brown families — who stay in places like this for years,” Emily Early, senior supervising attorney for the SPLC’s Economic Justice Project, said in a news release. “It is their home. They deserve all the rights of tenants. Calling something an ‘inn’ or ‘hotel’ doesn’t allow landlords to shirk their responsibilities.”
The removal of the residents along with several other families prompted protests at the beginning of October. Roy Barnes, who sold his interest in the company many years ago, disputed the claims, adding that the evictions were not illegal and the armed security guards were necessary to deal with complaints about crime.
“They did tell folks, as anybody that operates under the innkeeper act, you don’t have to have an eviction,” he previously told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “You lock them out.”
The lawsuit tested a legal interpretation on whether extended stay motel residents, who typically make low incomes and may be living on the brink of homelessness, have the same rights as tenants in apartments or houses. In addition, the legal battle began amid the pandemic, which prompted a federal moratorium on evictions for low-income renters. However, that order does not apply to people in hotels or motels.
In January, DeKalb County Judge Stacey Hydrick ruled that the residents were improperly evicted and denied Efficiency Lodge’s request to dismiss the case. Efficiency Lodge has appealed both decisions.
The SPLC, along with Housing Justice League, the Atlanta Volunteers Lawyers Foundation and two academics, filed legal paperwork last Thursday to say they support the former residents’ lawsuit.
“In this case the Georgia Court of Appeals has an opportunity to make it clear: people living in extended stay hotels have rights and are part of the larger renters class, with shared interests and problems like any other renters,” Alison Johnson, executive director of the Housing Justice League, said in the release.
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