The second half of the Motel 6 on Richmond Road was condemned on Friday, forcing residents, guests of the hotel to leave.
There were 37 individuals displaced from 20 rooms in the hotel, said Lee Ann Hartmann, spokeswoman for the city of Williamsburg. Of the 37 guests, 26 individuals required assistance either with transportation, finances for securing another lodging, or help finding a more permanent residence.
That was not the first time this happened at that motel.
Back in September 2018, parts of the hotel were condemned, including an entire building and part of the second building. At that time, parts of the walkway had been found to be unsteady and an outdoor stairwell had been blocked off.
Matt Westheimer, deputy director of the planning and codes compliance department for the city, said in addition, the fire department also found rot in the balconies at that time.
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Westheimer said a contractor was hired to fix the issue and when work began, ceilings were pulled down in the other building and revealed a significant amount of rot. The walkways were also found to be deteriorating so much so that they would have to be removed entirely, Westheimer said.
On Friday morning, the city posted a notice the building was condemned and people staying there needed to gather their personal belongings and leave as soon as possible.
“A motel like [Motel 6] is only for transient style occupants,” he said. “It’s only designed to help people for less than 30 days, so those types of people shouldn’t need a lot of time to get out because they shouldn’t have a lot of items.”
As residents of the motel moved out, the Williamsburg Fire Department, Williamsburg Police, and Human Services were all on the scene to help people move their belongings, said police spokesman John Heilman.
People began to leave the motel around 10:30 a.m., at which point they could stop by a command center that was set up nearby where members of Human Services tried to work with them to find other hotels in the area, Heilman said.
He said some had pets, which made it more difficult finding another motel.
Additionally, he said the Human Services department was working with people who had paid for their rooms in advance to see if they could get a refund.
Hartmann said Human Services will continue to work with the people displaced in the coming days and weeks to identify alternative housing options for longterm residence.
Heilman said from a police standpoint there were no issues in getting residents out of the property.
“It’s a very difficult thing for these citizens to go through,” he said. “But they seemed to have a positive attitude. Some people were upset, and rightly so, but there were no issues.”
Heilman said on Friday there were three officers on scene, including himself, until about 6 p.m. On Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., individuals from city departments returned to help the residents remove their remaining items.
According to the Motel 6 corporate office, the location at 3030 Richmond Road is owned by Sunstar Williamsburg and the national franchise terminated its agreement and affiliation with the location in May.
It remains unclear what’s going to happen to the building.
