Two days after the Monroe County Department of Human Services began pulling homeless families from emergency housing placements at the Motel 6 on Chili Avenue, the hotel’s owner sent an email plea to agency supervisors.
There was no need to uproot families, some of whom had been living there for more than a month, wrote the owner, Bisma Khan. In fact, she wrote, there were up to 60 more rooms available in addition to the rooms already occupied.
“To clear some more misunderstandings,” her email began. “My apologies for how this entire thing had started.”
The message was among a dozen emails exchanged between the hotel and the county in the lead up to the displacement of scores of families, including more than 100 children, that highlighted the dearth of shelters and affordable housing for people in need in the Rochester area.
The emails, provided to WXXI News by Khan, suggest miscommunication between the two sides and illustrate how the scramble to house so many people unfolded.
AN ORDINARY DAY
The thread began on the morning of July 25 with a message to Khan from Jennifer Martinez, a supervisor with the Department of Human Services Emergency Housing Unit, that appeared to be a routine daily update.
Her message asked Khan what space was available for the day, informed Khan of which clients were moving out and who needed to stay, and included a roll call for the day that listed 70 adults and 137 children who were residing in the motel.
Khan replied about two hours later with a brief message to Martinez and other advocates for the homeless.
“Hi all,” the reply read. “Until further notice we are not taking any more placements. Thank you.”
Her message prompted an almost immediate response from Martinez, who asked if Khan could share details about timing so the agency could hash out a plan to relocate people being housed at the hotel.
Khan did not respond, according to the chain of emails.
The next morning, on July 26, the agency’s homeless coordinator, Rebecca Miglioratti, wrote to Khan, saying, “It appears you are discontinuing business with us,” and noted that the agency had “a lot of families we need to make arrangements for” and asked for clearer communication.
Khan wrote back quickly to say that the motel was not ending its relationship with the Emergency Housing Unit but was limiting the number of families it could take in. She explained that renovations were underway and that the motel had “lots of rooms closed down for pest control.”
“We will still continue doing business but will only be able to take a limited amount until we are able to take more,” Khan wrote. “This will help us make the changes we need to make.”
Miglioratti wrote back asking how many rooms were available to house people. Khan replied that it would be a few days before she could give “a more accurate answer.”
THE SCRAMBLE BEGINS
Within hours, the Department of Human Services issued an emergency notice to clients at Motel 6 informing them that no extensions were being granted and that everyone had to vacate on the date their placement expired.
At the time, according to the roll call for the previous day, that meant almost everyone staying in the motel would have to leave over the next week.
On July 28, when it had become apparent to Khan that clients were being relocated, she wrote to Martinez and Miglioratti attempting to clarify her position.
“I am not sure if there is a misunderstanding,” her email began, “but just to clear any miscommunication, you are welcome to extend the people that are already staying at the hotel, not everyone needs to be closed out if they don’t need to be. We are not eliminating your business just limiting how many placements we can take.”
Her email acknowledged that she had yet to give the agency a count of available rooms, but promised she would soon.
But the damage had been done.
MIXED MESSAGES
Miglioratti responded that the agency had received “mixed messages” on extending stays, and noted that it had been caught off guard by Khan’s refusal to accept new clients. Interim conversations between the agency and Khan and her staff were confusing, she wrote.
“You must understand how this feels and appears,” Miglioratti wrote. “. . .We can’t operate like this when we have an obligation to homeless families in need of temporary housing assistance.”
The exchange undercut what a county spokesperson on Monday offered as the primary reason that people being housed at the motel were being relocated, namely "ongoing concerns with sanitary conditions at Motel 6."
While emails from Khan mentioned "issues with the Health Department" and acknowledged that some rooms were being treated for pests, none of the messages from Department of Human Services representatives made any mention of cleanliness as a factor in relocating families. Media reports of the displacement this week did, however, chronicle visible pest problems at the motel.
Part of the rift between Kahn and the county appears to have been exacerbated by the possibility of Motel 6 housing migrants.
In one email, Miglioratti asked Khan when she anticipated signing a contract with New York City to take in migrants, and how such an agreement might affect the motel's relationship with Monroe County. Khan replied that she did not know the timing of inking a deal, but said it would not impact the motel's capacity to work with the county.
In a lengthy email on the evening of July 28, Kahn apologized to Miglioratti for any “misunderstandings.”
“I am really sorry for making it feel and appear the way it has," she wrote. "I did not realize how much of a panic this was going to cause and how much it was going to hurt people and families, I will most definitely be more considerate in the future when we do plan on continuing renovations or even considering taking in separate business to let you know weeks prior and not just days as well as having clear communication."
That email concluded with her plea to keep clients at the motel and send more, if necessary.
"You guys can send in more people now," she wrote. "We have up to 60 rooms available to give you guys plus the rooms that DHS guests are already residing in."
The county has said it intends to find housing by Friday for everyone being sheltered at Motel 6.
During an interview Tuesday, Kahn said she was still attempting to convince the county to house people in need at her motel, which has been a vital emergency housing outlet for the county.
“I, from the bottom of my heart, apologized to them if there was any type of miscommunication, and I’m willing to sit down and have a conversation to make things better,” Khan said. “Things don’t get better if you don’t communicate with one another.”
“And now, this is at the stake of the homeless people,” she added. “Now, the homeless people are at the mercy of DHS.”
