150 could face homelessness with closure of Kingsport motel
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — Residents of the Westside Inn are facing potential homelessness after owners announced their plans to sell the Kingsport motel.
A letter to the motel’s guests dated March 19 informed them of plans to demolish the building to “make space for new business” and gave them until April 5 to vacate their rooms.
News Channel 11 spoke to multiple residents who have lived at the hotel for years and are now scrambling to find a new place to live.
“I just think it’s cruel,” said two-year resident Sonny Shipley. “There is a lot of people here that are going to be homeless. I don’t know where everybody is going to go.”
Like the other residents who spoke to News Channel 11, Shipley said he doesn’t know where he’s going to live when he leaves the motel.
Westside-owner C.P. Patel says the property is currently under contract for sale. He decided to sell the motel and neighboring parcels because of the difficulties of operating the business.
“We have had a hard time to run this place for the last six, seven years,” Patel told News Channel 11.
Patel said many residents were months behind on rent, making it difficult to keep up with utility and other maintenance costs.
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Poor living conditions
According to current residents, and a December 2023 inspection report from the Tennessee Department of Health, conditions inside the inn were not up to standards.
Ashley Johnson has shared a room with her family since December, relocating to the motel after her sister lost her apartment. She said her room has been without heat for a few weeks.
“Most people haven’t had heat all winter long,” Johnson added.
Long-time resident Diane Carberry agreed with Johnson. In her roughly seven years at the Westside Inn, she’s experienced deferred maintenance and untreated problems like bedbugs and mice.
“They don’t fix anything around here,” Carberry told News Channel 11.
A health department inspection report dated Dec. 8, 2023, found a total of 31 code violations in the property and suggests the vast majority of rooms were under use as longer-term residences.
The inspector noted only inspecting two of the property’s 79 rooms, as they were “the only rooms available for nightly rental.”
Violations included a live mouse found in the bathtub of one room, no soap present in any of the rooms inspected, missing lightbulbs, and failure to post the building’s current permit or inspection report.
News Channel 11 submitted a records request to TDH for more details, including plans for a follow-up visit.
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‘It is a disaster’
With the April 5 deadline looming, it’s not just residents who are bracing for a “crisis” of sorts.
Leaders with the homeless services non-profit Hunger First compared the pending evictions to a natural disaster.
“It is a disaster,” Executive Director Michael Gillis told News Channel 11.
Hunger First volunteers say they conducted a headcount at the property Thursday and found about 150 residents, including 12 children.
“There is no housing available for that many people, that amount of exodus,” Gillis said. “The only place that I would know that they could go would be another extended stay hotel.”
Gillis has sprung into action, collecting luggage to donate to residents and working to connect residents with alternative places to live.
Like resident Sonny Shipley, both Carberry and Johnson said they hadn’t found another place to live yet.
“We’ve looked, but right now we’re going to end up being split up,” Johnson said.
Carberry, retired, said she stayed at the Westside Inn so long because of its affordability. Now, facing eviction, Carberry says she’s scared about her next steps, but hopeful for the future.
“I was kind of devastated at first,” said Carberry. “And then I thought, well, I finally found a way to get out of here, praise the Lord.”
What’s next for Westside?
Though the pending sale of the property is not set to close until next month, plans are already in motion to transform the property into a car dealership.
Friendship Dealership Group President and CEO Mitch Walters told News Channel 11, he is working on plans to transform the property into a 27,500-square-foot Hyundai facility.
Walters said he is working with the city to rezone the property and hopes to begin construction on the dealership this summer.
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