Columbus hotel housing homeless residents, pets shuttered for crime, safety issues
A group of homeless residents and their pets were turned out over the weekend after a Southeast Side hotel was shut down due to crime and safety issues.
The Community Shelter Board had been paying the Loyalty Inn, 5910 Scarborough Blvd., since mid-December to house 30 people with pets who could not stay in regular shelters, according to the board's spokesperson Níel Jurist. The group came from homeless camps the city ordered vacated in December.
On Saturday, the Loyalty Inn closed as part of an agreement between the hotel's current owner and the City Attorney's Office Property Action Team, which has been working with the property for years, according to Pete Shipley, a spokesperson for City Attorney Zach Klein. In 2021, the Franklin County Environmental Court declared the Loyalty Inn a public nuisance and ordered the owner or any subsequent owner to make improvements.
The Loyalty Inn's current owners have failed to follow the court's order, according to Shipley. Columbus police have been called to the hotel about one hundred times over the last year and the most recent State Fire Marshal inspection found seventeen violations, per Shipley.
"This is a really challenging case for us because we're in between a rock and a hard place," Klein told The Dispatch. "God forbid, something would happen where someone was shot or there was a fire, we would be open to genuine criticism of why didn't you do more."
Klein said his office was willing to give the owner until the end of the month to shut down to give residents of the hotel time to relocate, but the owner decided to shut down early.
The shelter board program was scheduled to last through the end of March, according to Jurist. The shelter board was paying between $43 and $49 per night for the rooms.
Jurist said alternative shelter options were offered to the homeless residents impacted by the hotel closure, including the chance to go into a traditional shelter and their pets would be sheltered at the Franklin County Animal Shelter, but they all declined. She said some chose to return outdoors while others found other accommodations, such as with friends or family.
"This situation highlights the critical shortage of deeply affordable housing. If adequate housing were available, hotels and motels would not be utilized as for emergency shelter options," Jurist said.
More Shelter Board news: Community Shelter Board fires employee with anti-Muslim YouTube page
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Loyalty Inn, Columbus hotel that housed the homeless, has shut down
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