Owners of hotels and motels, specifically near the Washington Road and I-20 junction, say that the homeless problem is significantly impacting their businesses and that Richmond County Sheriff Richard Roundtree is not helping.
However, a ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court may make the issue moot.
According to local hotel owner Andy Sharma, he and several of his colleagues in the local hospitality industry have retained an attorney and plan to go to court if necessary.
“People read the reports of drug use and prostitution in the motels, and they think we, the owners, are the problem. But they do not know what we are going through. We are powerless to kick these people out, and the sheriff won’t do anything to help,” Sharma said.
According to Sharma and fellow hotelier Meena Patel, homeless and ne’er do wells will use a prepaid credit card or an app such as CashApp or Venmo to secure a room for one night and then stay on without paying.
Entire families will move in, Sharma says, and even register their children in school using the motel address and still refuse to pay.
“We can shut off their key card access, but they make sure someone is always in the room, so they don’t have to use the key card,” Sharma said.
The squatters also refuse to allow housekeeping employees in, and it has cost the businesses thousands of dollars in damages.
According to Patel, her company has lost over $65,000 in unpaid rooms and damages. Patel once cut the power to an extended stay guest for non-payment and says she received a citation and that a Sheriff’s deputy threatened to arrest her for “refusal to obey a command.”
“I have been in Augusta and running my business for 23 years. I do not have a criminal record, and here they are threatening to put me in handcuffs when I am the victim here,” Patel said.
The group of hoteliers have sought help from the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA).
“As a non-profit organization, we do not bring lawsuits, but we are certainly going to give the Augusta hotel owners any aid we can provide,” Vic Zaver, Georgia regional director of the AAHOA, said.
In November of 2022, a delegation of hotel owners asked the Augusta Commission’s Public Service Committee to waive the transportation tax on rooms inhabited by squatters to no avail.
A source within the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, who asked not to be named, said that it is not a matter of the sheriff not enforcing the law, but that law enforcement has been hamstrung due to an appellate court decision.
The May 2022 ruling stated that residents of extended stay motels can be considered “tenants” as opposed to “guests” and cannot be kicked out for any reason without a court order, causing the extended stay motels to be treated the same as apartments under the law.
The court ruling did not define how long a person must stay on the property to be considered a “tenant.”
J. R. Tregeagle, manager of the Budget Inn and Suites, says that word of the court ruling was passed around on the streets, and the homeless people folded up their tents and, instead of sleeping outside, invaded his establishment.
Local motels do not allow cash payments; however, if a prepaid card has enough funds on it for one night’s stay, the motel owner is required by law to accept the guest for that one night.
“The Sheriff’s deputies don’t know what to do because the guests know about this court ruling, so they tell the deputies that the motel is their residence and the deputies then tell me I have to file for eviction,” Tregeagle said.
The eviction process takes months.
However, on June 21, the Georgia Supreme Court vacated the appellate court ruling and remanded the case back to the court of original jurisdiction.
G. B. Sharma, a local hotel owner since 1984, in a November 2022 interview with The Augusta Press, said that the Innkeepers Act, Code § 43-21-3, refers to people staying in a hotel or extended stay motel as “guests.”
“There shouldn’t be any confusion between a motel guest and an apartment tenant because when they rent a motel room, they sign a registration card, when they rent an apartment, they sign a lease,” Sharma said.
According to the unnamed source in the Sheriff’s Office, the recent Supreme Court ruling is under legal review within the department.
“We will follow and enforce the law,” the source said.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
