!["I'm trying to do the best that I can to make [the residents] see that this isn't their fault,” Lacy Foster said of the current economic downturn. She has been the manager of the Desert Rose Inn for the past eight years, and a tenant there herself.](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5675d221cbced60a236e28b8/1586720201185-2TRMVCZTAZIWPQ559E6N/lacy.png)
COVID-19 Disrupts Motel Community
While horror stories are surfacing of motel tenants getting harassed if they can’t pay rent and bullied into moving out, the staff at the Desert Rose Inn said no one would be getting evicted on their watch, even deciding that before Gov. Steve Sisolak put a moratorium on evictions on March 29th.
“I'm really glad that the governor did that because that's a little bit of a weight lifted off some people's shoulders because it was already bad in this town for housing," Foster said.
The moratorium is for both residential and commercial tenants for the duration of Nevada’s state of emergency, including weeklies, which constitute long term housing for thousands in Reno. Earlier this month, a judge in Lyon County ordered the Extended Stay Suites in Fernley to pay $2,500 in damages to a tenant the business had locked out.
“We're kind of a community here,” Foster said of the Desert Rose Inn approach. “People talk, people hang out here. We walk our dogs together, we do things together here. We're not just: you live here and I live here. It's not that way. It's never been that way. There's a lot of my older tenants here that I shop for, and I go to their room and hang out with them. They don't have anybody. I've had to stop doing those things and that's really hard because now they're by themselves. That's the thing, we're supposed to isolate but sometimes that's not always the best thing either. I've been talking to a few of them on the phone a little bit more. But I think that's the worst part because we are close here," Foster said.
The Desert Rose Inn houses several families, veterans and a handful of seniors. "We have people that get a monthly check that don't work, their checks are still coming in like social security, they're still paying rent. Everybody wants to do their part and the people that can't pay rent, they're really worried and they feel bad. They're trying to see if they can help work around here, so sweet, which we don't do," Foster said.
Food Insecurity Concerns
Out of the 70 occupied rooms, Foster said about half of the tenants have been laid off from their casino jobs. She said their biggest concerns are running out of money for food.
"That's super sad and super scary. That is a horrible feeling for anybody, let alone if you're mother and I'm a mom. With this place, I see everybody as my family here. So, my first instinct is, 'Oh my gosh, how am I going to feed everybody?' That's where I'm at right now," Foster said.
In addition to collecting a smaller amount of rent, a decline of tourism in Reno has also hurt the Desert Rose Inn. From mid March to the end of May all of the room bookings from out of town were cancelled.
"Tourism is down, definitely. Nobody wants to leave their own homes wherever they're at, let alone come to a city where they don't know anybody in quarantine," Foster said.
Foster isn’t bringing in any new tenants or nightlies either. She supports the hopefully soon to arrive $1,200 federal stimulus checks and deposits but she also wants to see more being done for small businesses. She worries about the expenses her landlord has to pay like utilities.
"We've got to keep these people with power and water," Foster said. “Because when people pay their rent, that's what we use to cover these things.”
Desert Rose Inn also employs two housekeepers, two maintenance workers and an additional office worker. Foster said no one has been laid off but their jobs do look a little different now.
Foster spends nights disinfecting the handrails of the stairs. During the day, she says, she talks to residents on the phone to stay in contact and check in.
New Ways to Operate in A Different World
Before the coronavirus pandemic restrictions, the motel’s staff used to go into rooms to clean and vacuum them, and provide tenants with clean linen, toilet paper and tissue paper. Foster said, as of right now, they have an adequate amount of toilet paper. But in an effort to limit physical interaction, the staff have resorted to leaving supplies in a bag on residents’ door handles. Tenants are instructed to do the same with their dirty linen, which is then cleaned immediately.
"With the tenant's laundry, we're so worried that they're going to shut down laundry facilities. So we got a system going now with them, on your service day where you get housekeeping is the day you could do laundry. We have a little sign where you turn it red or green if somebody is in there. Every hour we just wipe the whole thing down. We'll go in there and the tenants will have our bottle of water and bleach and they'll be wiping it down after they leave and everybody's really looking out for each other," Foster said.
Foster said her residents have also been following social distancing guidelines to keep everyone healthy.
"We were going to put some tape out by the office window here, you know, six feet. As we were doing it, everybody was coming to walk up to either check their mail or whatever, and before we could even put the tape down they were doing it and telling everybody else, 'Oh hey, get back a little bit more,'" Foster said.