Around 60 asylum seeker families facing eviction from the Howard Johnson hotel in South Portland have been given additional time to move out, thanks to a settlement agreement reached yesterday.
The families could have been evicted in the next couple weeks as the hotel owner sought to comply with a South Portland ordinance requiring local lodging establishments to stop operating as de facto homeless shelters by June 30. The families will now have to move out on or before July 31.
Katherine McGovern, an attorney with Pine Tree Legal Assistance who represented some of the families, said the extension is likely the most amount of extra time her team could have secured for their clients.
But she said it doesn't answer one critical question.
"There does not seem to be a plan right now for where families will go at the end of July," she said. "So that was the question that all of the families had for us that we couldn't answer, 'What's the plan for after July 31?'"
McGovern said she hopes city and state officials will use the added time to come up with a plan.
Howard Johnson is among several hotels in southern Maine that have operated as de facto emergency shelters during the pandemic. The families currently staying at Howard Johnson are primarily from Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti.
Hotel owner Suresh Gali issued a statement through his lawyers saying the settlement will allow the hotel to work with the state, the city, and local housing advocates "to ensure a more permanent solution or a safe transition of our guests."
South Portland city councilors were set to meet with state officials Tuesday to discuss options for guests who remain at local hotels past the June 30 deadline for the properties to stop operating as emergency shelters, according to a city spokesperson.
