Emotions ran high and reached a boiling point when more than 70 residents were forced to leave an Eatonville motel today. Many scrambled to put their belongings together to meet the Friday afternoon deadline, some not knowing where they would be going.
According to Eatonville Mayor Bruce Mount, inspectors recommended that the Eatonville Home Town Suites be condemned and vacated immediately, as it is unsafe and poses a health risk.
“It’s all about the health and welfare of the residents and my heart goes out to them,” said Mount. “We are doing everything we can to place them.”
But residents were angry over the manner in which they have been forced to leave their motel home, where some have lived for five years and another as long as 14 years. Residents complained too that, they had been given a mere 48 hours notice to vacate, although the Town had been advised more than three weeks ago that the motel should be condemned immediately.
“If the Town knew this [condemning of the building] was going on from December 10, why do you wait until January 28, to give us two days to get out,” one woman with tears in her eyes cried out.
The disruption to residents comes in the midst of one of the largest outdoor festivals currently taking place in Florida, Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts, which culminates on February 2nd. And the motel is located less than 100 yards from one of the entrances to the Festival.
Some suggest that today’s debacle is rooted in Mayor Mount’s political nemesis, former Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant, co-owner of the motel. And there is speculation that Grant will announce his candidacy to run again for his old job pitting him against Mount.
Mount vehemently denied that his insistence that residents leave the motel was politically motivated.
“Absolutely not, I am a public servant. As mayor I rely on the professionals and when there are code violations so serious that we are told the building should be condemned immediately, we have to act,” he said.
Asked whether he was comfortable with the fact that the eviction of families, including young children, could turn out to be a national black eye on the Town, Mount responded, “Absolutely not.”
Meanwhile, Jeffrey Wooden who is the personal representative of Debbie Wooden Estates and co-owns the motel had some harsh words for Grant.
According to Wooden, it has taken him more than two years to get to this point. He says when his mom [Debbie Wooden] needed help with the motel which she initially owned outright, she turned to Grant for assistance and he “swindled his way in.”
“The place is rundown, there is no liability insurance and we have never received any money from my mom’s estate since she died,” he said. Although a co-owner, Wooden said he has been trespassed quite a few times. He also wanted to begin fixing up the property, he said.
“I didn’t want it [eviction of residents] to come to this, but Grant is taking the money and not putting it back into fixing the place,” Wooden said.
Residents who lived at the motel paid between $170-$200 a week.
“Grant can’t get free money any more which he collects every Friday,” Wooden added. “He [Grant] had the notice since January 8, that this place was being condemned, but he still raised the rent, collected it and didn’t tell the residents anything.”
And what are the plans for the motel? “I have no idea,” Wooden responded.
Three days ago, a list of 17 motels and transitional homes were provided to residents of the Eatonville Home Town Suites. But, on this cold and rainy night, several families, some with young children, are still scrambling to find a place to call home.
