Hundred$ Of Thousand$ In Deferred Maintenance Leads To Quick, Court-Ordered, Pre-Foreclosure Boot For 100+ Residents Of Deteriorating Low-Income Motel

In Colorado Springs, Colorado, The Gazette reports:

• Few people would have mistaken Lynn Burke’s tiny room at the Express Inn for a luxury apartment, but to her, it was Eden. She could walk to her job at the Eighth Street. Walmart, a blessing for someone who has never owned a car. She could pay a little extra each month so she could keep her cat with her. And she could afford the $569-a-month rent. “Such as it is, it was home,” said Burke, who has lived at the motel for four years.
• Now, she doesn’t know where home will be. [S]he and more than 100 other tenants at the motel-cum-low-income-rental complex received notice that they must move out [...] in advance of a [] court-ordered shutdown tied to an impending foreclosure sale.
• A nonprofit that sublet rooms at the Express Inn for some tenants found accommodations for about 20 of them, and others found places on their own or went to stay with friends or family. But Burke and another half dozen tenants who remained [] were scrambling to find another place to live, and were upset that they weren’t given more time to move, considering that the foreclosure was filed on March 7.

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• The Express Inn, on Cimarron Street at 8th Street, has had a range of tenants: families, young people and the elderly, the working poor and the homeless. Many of those who have jobs, like Burke, were able to afford the rent, especially if they had roommates.
• Others became clients of C-C Boarding Home Annex, a nonprofit created in 2008 to sublet rooms from the Express Inn to house homeless and low-income people. Their rent — as low as $15 per day or $60 per week per person — was paid through donations and sponsorships from individuals and nearly two dozen churches.
• But Ray Castillo, co-founder of C-C- Boarding Home Annex, said [] that expenses outstripped income, and the management company couldn’t keep up with the bills.

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• The property is scheduled to be auctioned on July 6, but [court-appointed receiver Dave] Mersman said the court ordered it to close before [] because of crumbling sidewalks, unsafe electrical connections and other problems that posed a hazard to tenants. “It amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred maintenance that’s been ignored on this property,” Mersman said.(1)

For the story, see Residents booted from low-income rentals at Express Inn (Court cites hazards in ordering closure).

(1) For a Gazette editorial on this story, see They're trampling the rights of our homeless ('Get out,' without much warning):

• “They may be trying to get rid of them before the tenants have an opportunity to exercise their rights,” said Steve Flynn, a staff attorney with Colorado Legal Services. “A person occupying a foreclosed upon property is entitled to a court process of eviction.” Exercising the eviction process, Flynn said, can buy a tenant weeks of valuable time to transition into a suitable living arrangement.
  
  Theresa Kilgore, managing attorney of Colorado Legal Services, said a federal law enacted in 2009, titled the “Protecting Tenants and Foreclosure Act,” should protect the motel’s residents from having to obey an order to leave on inadequate notice.
  
  In general, the law gives tenants of foreclosure properties the right to a 90-day notice of eviction. Kilgore said the motel dilemma is complicated, involving a tenant who sublets to the poor, and she will research whether the law may protect any who remain in the motel.

Colorado Legal Services is a non-profit corporation that provides access to civil legal services for as many low-income persons and members of vulnerable populations throughout Colorado as possible.

For more on the rights of tenants in homes/apartments in foreclosure, see National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty: Staying Home: The Rights of Renters Living in Foreclosed Properties.