Living without power
Families at extended-stay motel could lose water soon, too
Families living at an extended-stay Kissimmee motel have been without electricity to cook food or run air conditioners for more than a week and could soon lose water as well.
Power was turned off at Lake Cecile Inn & Suites off U.S. Highway 192 on Dec. 2, after the motel’s owner neglected to pay the electric bills for two months. On the doorknobs of the motel rooms, paper notices were hanging to let tenants know the water will also be disconnected Thursday.
“We don’t really have anywhere else to go,” Barbara England said, standing outside her second-floor unit Tuesday. “There’s nothing really we can do.”
During a visit to the motel, most of the deadbolts had been removed from the doors, leaving them open for anyone to walk in. The front office door was locked, the dumpster spilling over with trash, and the swimming pool drained with only Coke cans and a boogie board lying on the bottom.
Outside one unit was a makeshift stove made out of cinder blocks and aluminum foil. Inside an abandoned room, the sheets had been stripped off the beds and a hot dog rotisserie machine was sitting in the middle of the floor.
England and her husband, Victor Rosa, have lived at Lake Cecile with their two children, 11-year-old Christian and 10-year-old Haylee, since August where they pay $1,000 a month for one room. Since they lost power, they’ve been using a portable generator for a small grill and microwave to cook meals. At nights when it’s cold, England piles blankets on top of her children. During the day, they crack the room’s window to let the breeze in.
England said she’s trying to find a new place to live, but the $1,500 the family makes each month in Supplemental Security Income and child support isn’t enough to afford a home. In 2018, the median price for a house in the Orlando metro area was $232,500, according to the Orlando Regional Realtors Association. The median cost of rent plus utilities is $1,163 a month, according to Census data.
England’s family is one of an
estimated 7,922 across Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties who are living with multiple families under one roof or in hotels and motels, according to a 2019 rental market study by University of Florida’s Shimberg Center.
Jeremy Hogan, an attorney who attempted to file an emergency injunction forcing the utilities companies to provide power and running water to the families who are still living at the motel, said the owner owes more than $13,000 to Kissimmee Utilities Authority and $6,000 to Toho Water Authority. An Osceola County judge denied Hogan’s request, but approved a third injunction demanding the motel’s owner, Mary Nguyen, pay the delinquent bills within the next two days.
“Whether that happens or not remains to be seen,” Hogan said. “The owner might come back to the court and say, ‘We simply don’t have the funds to pay it.’”
If the bills remain unpaid, Nguyen could be held in contempt of court and face criminal charges. Nguyen, whom Hogan said also owns the Star Motel next door, could not be reached for comment. The phone number for Lake Cecile has been disconnected.
Residents of the Lake Cecile Inn and Suites were informed in November that they would need to vacate the property. Some residents believed the owner was closing down to remodel; others thought the property was being abandoned. Hogan said because the owner did not follow the proper legal process to evict tenants, they are allowed to stay there.
England appeared in court Monday to ask the utilities companies to consider providing power and water to the property, despite the outstanding bills. Hogan represented her for free after hearing about the problems at the motel on the news.
There are still about 30 occupied units, Hogan said, and many of the people living in Lake Cecile are small children. Since the power was shut off, Hogan said people have broken into rooms and vandalized the property.
“These people, for the most part, live paycheck to paycheck … they don’t have first month’s deposit. They can’t just pick up and move,” Hogan said. “People are living in these longterm because they don’t really have a lot of choices.”
Grant Lacerte, general counsel for KUA, argued that providing service at no charge violated the company’s rules. Mary Rose Cox, public information officer for Toho Water,
said “unfortunately we must balance difficult decisions like this with our fiscal responsibility to all of our customers.”
“We never want to turn the services off,” Lacerte said. However, “we were very worried about the precedent that would be established providing free electricity. We are between a rock and a hard place.”
Despite the poor conditions, Krystal Diaz, a spokeswoman for Osceola County, said there’s no immediate danger to families living there.
Kimberly Rodriguez, who’s lived at the motel with her 7-month-old daughter for the past month, said families are getting fresh food and drinks from the 7-Eleven about a half-mile away or from friends living in the other nearby motels. When she heard the court had rejected the tenants’ pleas to turn the power back on, she said she felt defeated. All she can do now she said is find somewhere — “anywhere I can afford” — to live.
“I don’t think they’re going to do anything for the families,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not going to matter how many news people come.”