If, sometimes, a house is not a home, then neither is a motel.
And so, while Scudorise Burke and her three children usually did have a roof over their heads, for more than a year they did not have a home, drifting from motel to homeless shelter to motel, paying the bills, but never saving enough to find their own apartment.
“It was pretty scary,” said Burke, 44.
Finding and affording a home is a challenge for many Georgians, a state in which an estimated 14% of the population — more than 1.5 million people — live below the poverty line and where advocates say the shortage of affordable housing is a crisis.
Burke was lucky, in some ways. Though she suffered a financial setback with a divorce, she had some money — first from a disability payment, then from a job with a large insurance company. She and her kids didn’t live on the street, bunk for months with relatives or rent a cut-rate, drafty dive in a rough part of the city.
But she wanted something better, she said. “It’s my duty and my honor to take care of my children.”
Like many who live in motels, she had enough money to pay a modest rent, but not enough to actually make the move to an apartment. She needed a security deposit. She needed the first month’s rent. She needed the costs of a mover.
Worse, her former landlord had filed an eviction notice, which meant that when she filled out a rental application, the prospective new landlord doing a background check would see that filing and almost automatically say no.
So, Burke had a particular kind of problem. And while there is, experts say, a large-scale housing shortage and there are many other ways for families to have a housing problem, for this slice, there is a particular solution: Motel to Home.
By the spring of 2023, Burke was paying $599 a week to a motel, but she was saving almost nothing, so she was stuck.
“Then I stumbled on the Motel to Home program,” Burke said. “Without that, I couldn’t have saved up at the same time I was paying weekly rent.”
The program is run by St. Vincent de Paul Georgia.
On a budget of about $650,000 for direct assistance, the Motel to Home program is currently working with about 280 families, helping to move them into more stable residences and providing classes that help with money management, according to Heidi Eveleigh, program manager.
The program started five years ago with a dozen households.
While better off than many, motel-living families are still on the edge, going paycheck to paycheck, and a sudden gust of bad fortune can send them tumbling. Yet with guidance and help, they stand a better chance, Eveleigh said.
About 85% of the families are still in stable rental housing after a year, she said. “We are not always successful. People lose jobs. Hours change. Things happen.”
The need is much greater than St. Vincent’s resources, but the program has a target that improves the odds, aiming at those who are close to self-sufficiency where a little help goes a long way, Eveleigh said. “We get 120 applications a week and the vast majority of them do not qualify. They simply don’t have the income to pay rent.”
The program is for those like Burke who have income enough for rent, but need help making the leap from the motel to home, she said. “We won’t fund anyone who needs more than 35% of their income to pay rent.”
Money for the program comes from corporate donors, especially QuikTrip, PNC Bank and Gas South, but also DeKalb and Fulton counties.
Carley Stephens, director of corporate giving at Gas South, said the donations to St. Vincent de Paul are in line with a commitment made by the company to donate 5% of profits to charity. This past year, Gas South gave away $4.1 million, including about a quarter-million to St. Vincent de Paul, some of that going to Motel to Home.
Gas South is well aware that many customers struggle to pay their bills. The contribution to St. Vincent de Paul is meant to help some families find affordable apartments and craft financial plans, she said. “We are hoping to build more stability.”
On a recent Saturday, Gas South sponsored a party for a group of the Motel to Home families. Company employees bought and wrapped gifts, which were quietly given to parents in the hope that they make the presents part of their family’s holiday celebration.
“We want to invest in the respect and dignity of the families,” Stephens said. “Everyone is going through such a hard time.”
Scudorise Burke is hoping the worst of times are behind her, though she acknowledges that she doesn’t have much financial room for error. She receives SNAP, the federal aid known as food stamps.
But she’s studying for licenses to be an agent selling property and life insurance, she said. “My goal is not to depend on government assistance.”
She hopes she’ll look back on 2023 as the turnaround, when she was accepted into the Motel to Home program, which connected her to a landlord in Chamblee. The program paid her security deposit and her first month’s rent, arranged free furniture and enrolled her in a support group and a financial literacy class.
She signed a lease in late 2023.
“It was such a beautiful thing,” she said. “There were fireworks for Christmas. We watched out the window and it was magical.”
Credit: cus
Credit: cus
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