City of Rutland shuts down homeless hotel over code violations

RUTLAND, Vt. (WCAX) - Rutland’s mayor is shutting down the local Quality Inn, one of the hotels taking part in the state’s emergency housing program for the homeless.

City officials say they inspected the hotel and found so many violations, they are kicking everyone out by June 1. The city cites 26 violations including doors that do not latch, combustible materials stored in front of exits, leaking pipes, holes in walls, and a garden hose draining onto the carpet. The hotel has thirty days to correct all violations.

It’s the same hotel where two shooting deaths took place in the past six months and an overdose this week.

“There are a number of families that are down there --through no fault of their own -- they really are homeless, they need a place to stay. But there also was an element of folks down there that had no right, no business being there. There is very little oversight. The owners were lax and really as far as I was concerned, the state had dropped the ball on the program too,” said Rutland Mayor David Allaire.

He says the families living there will be taken care of and given new housing. He also says the other hotels taking part in the emergency housing program have not had issues like the Quality Inn.

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