Strong support continues for evicted Mayan Hotel residents
EL CENTRO — Residents of the condemned Mayan Hotel may have been displaced, but so far, they are continuing to receive help with temporary housing and other needs.
After being evicted out of their rooms from the Mayan Hotel here recently, many residents were left without a place to live.
Once his residents were forced out on Feb. 26, the hotel owner Jack Rafiq provided three days’ worth of hotel vouchers to the approximately 20 displaced families for temporary shelter until they would presumably receive their own personal income on the first on the month.
Local agencies and charities were ready to assist as soon as residents were evicted, and once the vouchers expired March 1, the county of Imperial stepped in and provided an additional 15 days’ worth of hotel stays.
The Imperial County Community and Economic Development office was able to provide the 15 days with funding from the Community Development Block Grant Subsistence Payments Program.
In an effort to provide temporary relief to the affected families, the county Board of Supervisors amended the CDBG Subsistence Payments Program to extend homeless prevention services beyond the unincorporated areas of the county.
Furthermore, thanks to donations from Clinicas de Salud del Pueblo and other organizations, ICCED was able to extend the duration of their services and give former residents an additional month of temporary housing, ICCED Manager Esperanza Warren said.
Notably, Clinicas de Salud and its other subsidiaries were able to raise and donate more than $20,000 to assist the affected residents.
“When we heard about the plight of the displaced residents of the Mayan Hotel, we felt that we needed to do what we could to help,” said Clinicas de Salud’s Resource Development Director Sara Sanders. “We reached out to several of our partners and were able to raise $23,000 to assist the tenants affected by the situation.”
Former Mayan residents and the remainder of the families also received services from Imperial County Public Health Department, Imperial County Behavioral Health Services and Imperial County Department of Social Services.
ICBHS has so far provided services to four former Mayan residents, said Gabriela Jimenez, Deputy Director of Adult and Older Adult Services.
“These individuals had a mental health rehabilitation technician assigned to them who provided targeted case management services and assisted them in finding an alternative placement,” Jimenez said. While hotel vouchers were provided as part of services, one client was placed at a local shelter, and another client reported having placement available with friends, the ICBHS deputy director said.
The severity of the incident has pushed Spread the Love Charity here to take on its biggest challenge yet.
The former Mayan residents and their families has been the largest number of people the charity has helped at one time, the charity’s founder, Jessica Solorio, reported. “We’ve dealt with red-tags and things like that before, but never a whole hotel complex and to this extent,” Solorio said.
So far, Spread the Love has helped 23 families, 90 percent of which came directly to the charity after the eviction. Help the charity has provided has included meals, clothing, hygiene products and copies of documents.
“Every day since then, they’re just stressed. They just don’t know what’s going to happen, so they’re coming to us,” Solorio said.
Spread the Love staff was present at the hotel on the day of the eviction to see what extent residents were going to need their services.
“We knew it was going to happen a few days prior, so we were already trying to gather funding just in case nothing came through,” Solorio said. The charity founder said since the eviction she has been in contact daily with Rafiq.
“He’s been asking and wondering what the condition is of the residents,” Solorio said. “He’s trying to make everything right.”
El Centro’s City Manager Marcela Piedra said the city continues to require Rafiq to meet his responsibilities.
“The property owner is reporting performance, and the city continues to coordinate with other agencies working on the issue,” said Piedra. “The owner at present is cooperating in working out a plan and schedule for improvement of the building.”