ORLANDO, Fla. — Shortly after 10 a.m. Monday, Orlando Police officers walked down the balconies of the Howard Johnson hotel on International Drive and taped orange condemned signs to the windows.
At one unit, they stopped, evidently believing it was occupied. They pounded on the door until it opened.
Outside the hotel, a young teenager sat in the parking lot surrounded by stuffed trash bags, school supplies and a scooter. Around the corner from him, a family with children loaded their belongings onto a bus supplied by the Coalition for the Homeless while a group of adults sat on the edge of the property, suitcases in hand, and observed the activity.
Photos: Orlando condemns hotel, forcing dozens of families out
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The hotel’s tenants – many who have lived there for months or years – had held out hope that this morning would turn out differently right until the officers arrived in the parking lot.
“Everybody feels like they should have more time,” Ronald Miller said.
Many tenants like Miller knew the reality. The hotel’s owner had let the property run down for years. Code violations stacked up for everything from structural issues to wiring to the broken fire suppression system.
As of Monday morning, the hotel was facing $67,000 in fines, mostly for issues that the city expected to be fixed in late 2024.
Unfortunately, the tenants paid the price. Many said they paid their $500 rent, which covered two weeks’ stay, on Tuesday. At noon on Wednesday, police officers told them they had to leave in just six hours. A now-former housekeeper said as of Tuesday night, 72 rooms were occupied.
Seeing how many families would be left with nowhere to go, city staff and OUC arranged for the utilities to remain on until Monday morning. It gave time for the tenants and nonprofit groups like the Coalition for the Homeless and Community Legal Services to organize.
Coalition for the Homeless was able to book hotel rooms elsewhere for five families, workers said. They added their team was responsible for handling families with children and more adults could’ve been helped by another group.
Tenants, though, spoke of promises they believe weren’t kept. Many said they had expected to receive a voucher for a few nights in a different hotel, but were confronted with eligibility requirements like pay stubs, which one man said didn’t help him because he had just started a new job.
Others said they weren’t sure which claims was accurate and which were simply among the many rumors circulating the community.
“You have to go through the process,” Miller said. “The process just is going to take longer than the time we have to get out.”
Shortly before police arrived, a man drove up in a shiny black Cadillac sedan. Tenants identified him as the property owner, though community groups later confirmed he was the hotel’s general manager.
The man refused to answer questions like would tenants get their $500 back, whether he could pay the city’s fines and why tenants weren’t given more notice about the pending evacuation.
He broke his silence to demand the news reporters get off his property.
“I got three kids,” a woman who identified herself as Candi said. “I got nowhere to go.”
One tenant said some flooded their rooms in protest of the owner as they exited.
Some, like Miller, were able to secure rooms at other hotels. One man, Travis Wieand, had fretted about sleeping on the street and going to jail when WFTV first spoke to him on Wednesday.
Thanks to the generosity of viewers, he collected enough money to rent a U-Haul and move himself, his wife and their dogs to Brevard County, where he said he had a new job waiting for him.
Still, he worried about his neighbors, who he had bonded with more closely since Wednesday.
“A lot of people… couldn’t sleep because they’re worried about where they’re going to go today,” he explained. “All these people need help to at least for a week or two till they can get on their feet and get their bearings straight.”
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