Over the weekend, residents at the Kozy Inn motel in Kingston, Ont. were asked to leave the premises immediately after the owners announced they were ceasing operation.
Many of the residents, who rent out the rooms month to month as full-time accommodation, have said they will not be leaving.
Others, like Melody and Patricia Griffin, did. The two sisters found alternative accommodation at another local motel, Seven Oakes, but now they say they are being forced out of that Seven Oakes after only spending one night.
A tearful 57-year old Melody Griffin was visibly upset Monday after hearing the news of their second eviction.
The two sisters lived at the Kozy Inn for 11-years, but now they’re afraid they might be homeless.
They say they paid Seven Oaks $1,600 up-front for a month in rent, but after just one night, they say they’ve been told to leave the Seven Oakes for several reasons.
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“‘You have too much stuff,'” Melody says she was told by a staff member at the Seven Oakes. “‘You have to get out.’ He didn’t even see it. We only have our clothes and cooking stuff.”
The sisters say they were also told they could no longer stay at the motel because they are smokers, and because they have a cat; they claim management asked them about their smoking and their pet before they moved in.
“Everybody here smokes. This guy here smokes (pointing next door), and this guy here (pointing the other way) because I know most of them,” Patricia said. “We’ve been around each other for years. Then all of a sudden there’s no smoking.”
The sisters feel they are being discriminated against for their economic class.
“It’s just wrong. We haven’t done anything wrong to be treated like this. I just can’t understand,” Patricia said.
Seven Oaks owner Raj Patel told Global News in a phone interview the motel does not allow pets and the sisters are occupying a “non-smoking” room.
“They are smokers. They didn’t tell us that they smoke. So we don’t allow to smoke in the room,” Patel said.
He added the sisters were given until 11 a.m. Tuesday to leave the property and will be receiving a full refund.
The sisters say they were advised by a lawyer to return to the Kozy Inn Motel but don’t want to because they say mould in the room was making them sick.
It’s unclear what the two women will do next.
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