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Travelodge temporary housing residents forced onto streets as hotels close due to coronavirus
Temporary accommodation tenants, including a large number of disabled people, have been left homeless after major hotel chain Travelodge decided to close the majority of its hotels in response to coronavirus.
Inside Housing has spoken to several people temporarily placed in the hotels by their council who have been asked to leave by Travelodge, as well as housing officers attempting to find places for those now made homeless.
Catriona Chambers told Inside Housing that her daughter, who had been living in a Travelodge in Bromley while she waited for Lewisham Council to find suitable accommodation, was told yesterday by the hotel she only had a few hours to vacate her room as it was closing.
Ms Chambers said her daughter, who has a neurological disorder and has lost use of both legs, is now being moved to another Travelodge in Waterloo, following an intervention from the council, which had not been informed by the hotel chain that it was planning to close.
A housing worker from a different council, who preferred not to be named, told Inside Housing that their local authority was given just a few hours notice to find alternative accommodation for its Travelodge residents, the majority of whom are disabled.
They said the hotel chain is generally used by the council to house homeless people being discharged from hospital due to the central locations and access facilities Travelodge hotels have.
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According to the housing worker, the council was told yesterday that Travelodge was keeping five hotels open in central London, which will be available for homeless clients on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Meanwhile, Travelodge residents from other parts of the country have been posting on Twitter that they are also being told to vacate their homes.
One anonymous user tweeted a letter sent to them by Travelodge, dated 24 March, which said they needed to “leave the hotel as soon as possible today” as the branch was closing “following the government’s instruction last night to close hotels as part of the new restrictions to prevent the spread of coronavirus”.
Received this at 1.20 today. No information from government online from closure @TravelodgeUK Considerable displacement including us. #nohometogoto @Shelter #travelodge pic.twitter.com/zO93wwhwdQ
— thehumansinthetelling (@OfficialTHINT) March 24, 2020
However, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government tweeted yesterday that all “hotels, hostels and B&Bs providing rooms to support people who are homeless through arrangements with local authorities and other public bodies - should remain open and are not affected by the guidance issued yesterday”.
All hotels, hostels, and B&Bs providing rooms to support people who are homeless through arrangements with local authorities and other public bodies – should remain open and are not affected by the guidance issued yesterday #covid19 #coronavirus
— Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg)All hotels, hostels, and B&Bs providing rooms to support people who are homeless through arrangements with local authorities and other public bodies – should remain open and are not affected by the guidance issued yesterday #covid19 #coronavirus
— Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Govt (@mhclg) March 24, 2020
In response to the news that homeless families are being evicted from Travelodge hotels, Jo Underwood, managing solicitor of the strategic litigation team at Shelter, tweeted: “This is going to be awful and needs urgent actions. Hundreds of homeless families are housed temporarily in Travelodge hotels because their local council doesn’t have access to alternative accommodation for them.”
A representative from the Travelodge said: “Travelodge has been obliged to commence the temporary closure of its hotels in line with the instructions from the government on 24 March 2020. We do expect to remain open in selected critical locations across the country to support accommodation for emergency workers and other groups.
"We are reviewing daily which hotels are best positioned to support the needs that arise with the government while ensuring we comply with the new restrictions in place to protect the public.”
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