The signs dot downtown, with modern fonts, in fashionable green and tacky blue and grey, urging people to call for available rooms. These rooms are multiplying quickly in hi rises and converted casino complexes. The website blares Move In Today! It advertises rooms as “flexible-stay living” starting at $289.05.
The details sound much like those which used to be offered by motels, now being razed. “Some of our suites also include kitchenettes. Want to bring your own bed or other furniture? No problem. We can quickly and easily remove what you want to bring. Rent your Reno apartment today with bad credit ok, no long term lease required, and your choice of low weekly or monthly rent. Our studio apartments are a great value. Each suite comes with free utilities, free cable TV, free WIFI, and more. For those warm summer months, we also have a sparkling pool! Lastly, another great feature of Siegel Suites is our Siegel Rewards Program. The longer you stay, the less you pay!”
The chain started in Las Vegas in the mid 2000s, where it has nearly 30 locations now. No surprise Nevada is its base, as the Silver State has the least affordable and available rental units for low income households in the nation. Stephen Siegel, the chief executive and a former auto-body shop owner in North Hollywood, has said in interviews lots of his customers live check to check, and are on the verge of homelessness.
The company has reportedly battled zoning officials and classification as single-room-occupancy hotels, wanting to sound more prestigious as apartments. But make no mistake, it is part of the “poverty industry economy,” having distributed blankets with the Siegel name at service providers for the unhoused. The “bad credit ok” component speaks to its targeting of the “credit underclass,” those without the necessary credit rating to get accepted in many places.
In cases of late payments due though, according to correspondence obtained by reporters, Siegel “guests” become “residents,” with large mounting bills and repayment plans with added amounts to regular rent.
During the pandemic, while evictions went down elsewhere, they remained steady at Siegel Suites, according to numerous media reports, despite the company collecting millions from counties in federal rental assistance and in Paycheck Protection Program loans. People were removed not for unpaid rent, but for not having an active lease. Others have had “no-cause” eviction notices taped to their doors, with constables changing locks. So the pandemic showed hundreds of Siegel tenants were vulnerable and unprotected despite government efforts, precisely because they didn’t have long-term leases.
While motels get a bad rap in town, what of Siegel Suites? Local complaints on review sites though for Siegel rooms sound like what some motels get, “bed bugs,” “horrible service,” “broken beds,” but without the accompanying political and business improvement district badmouthing.
One reviewer staying at the Siegel Suites Nevadan on Virginia Street wrote: “Don't live there especially if you have kids if there were a 1/4 of a star, that's all I'd give them.” Another wrote about the Reno Suites on 2nd Street: “The place is so dirty! Old and outdated. The first thing I noticed on arrival were the elevators the carpets so dirty the number panel dirty. The hallway carpet dirty spill stains everywhere.Our room was on the 25 floor, a suite. Dirty and stained carpet, chair, sofa. Tables all dusty. Trash on the bathroom floor. TV in the living room didn't work, shower didn't drain. It was so bad that we didn't even feel comfortable sleeping under the blanket. I will Never stay here again. How do you have such a dirty place coming out of a pandemic?”