An Atlanta Democrat asked Tuesday why state resources should be used to police extended-stay hotels during a hearing on a bill that would allow law enforcement to eject people asserting tenants’ rights.
Rep. Stacey Evans quizzed hotel industry representatives during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on why hotels can’t provide their own security personnel. And she appeared unmoved by claims that hotels are run by “mom and pop” owners who can’t afford security because of labor shortages and tight margins.
“What has the industry done to take care of balancing its own risk by, for example, hiring people that are trained in law enforcement or off-duty police officers or security, so that when you want to implement these lockouts, you’re not asking the 18-year-old after-school worker girl to do it?” Evans asked.
The hearing was attended by hotel industry representatives, the bill’s sponsors, as well as housing advocates opposed to a bill they fear will strip families — including mothers and their young children living long-term in the hotels — of the few protections they have.
Chris Hardman, a director of governmental affairs for the Georgia Hotel and Lodging Association, said the group is throwing its support behind the proposed measure to ensure that state law treats extended-stay hotel residents as guests rather than long-term tenants.
“Hotels are not apartments, the way I look at it,” Hardman said. “A hotel does not have a formal lease agreement. They are not doing criminal background checks. They’re not doing credit checks. They’re offering a service to the community.”
House Bill 183, or the Innkeeper Reform Act, was introduced by Marietta Republican and state Rep. Devan Seabaugh. The proposed amendment would allow extended-stays to avoid a lengthy eviction process through the courts. Owners could present an affidavit to law enforcement which gives residents five days to vacate before officers come and remove them. The statement to police does not have to include proof of the status of the people staying at their hotels or how long they have lived in their rooms, according to housing advocates.
The fate of the legislation is uncertain and it was tabled before housing advocates had a chance to speak. Chair and Republican Rep. Stan Gunter can decide whether to put the bill back on the agenda, and Seabaugh told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he believes the measure is “still alive.”
But Evans faulted the hotels’ business practices, including their failure to screen people.
“Coming in here and pleading poverty doesn’t really go very far with me. You’ve chosen to engage in a risky business model. And then to come in here and ask us to ask the police to bear all the risk of that just doesn’t sit well with me,” the lawmaker said after hearing from several people advocating for the bill.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Housing advocates say extended stays are part of a shadow industry where there is little oversight and people’s ongoing occupancy is largely at the whim of owners.
In 2024, the AJC visited several extended stays in metro Atlanta and found families living paycheck to paycheck, some in neglected hotel rooms with mold and bugs. Many said they had no choice but to stay at the hotels because their eviction records made it difficult to find new homes.
The Southern Poverty Law Center estimates 30,000 families are living in motels across the metro Atlanta region.
“They’re working as hard as they can, as many jobs as they can, to keep a roof over their head,” Sue Sullivan, who advocates for families in extended-stays, told the AJC earlier this month. “They’re not squatters. These are hardworking people.”
During the hearing, another Democrat, Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver, asked if the legal framework in the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling in Efficiency Lodge Inc. v. Neason was sufficient to decide whether a person living in a hotel is a guest or a tenant.
That 2023 decision found that in certain circumstances, someone living in an extended-stay hotel could claim a landlord-tenant relationship — meaning hotel owners might have to go through a lengthier process in eviction court before throwing them out.
Attorney Vincent Russo told Oliver hotel owners face a scenario where law enforcement is hesitant to act because of legal uncertainty.
“This bill doesn’t end the landlord-tenant relationship,” he said. “If I go to the St. Regis tonight and get a hotel room and then I decide I’m going to stay for the rest of the week, they’re not going to allow that. But when you get into some of these places, sheriffs aren’t willing to remove the individual because they just presume that it must be a landlord-tenant relationship.”
According to a Georgia House of Representatives’ statement, some in law enforcement are backing the bill because it “will eliminate confusion when responding to disputes between hotels and overstaying guests.”
Meanwhile, Seabaugh told Evans that the bill would allow hotels to hire off-duty officers to enforce the law. He said after the five-day notice, the police could arrest them for criminal trespass if they refuse to leave.
Credit: TNS
Credit: TNS
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