Foreclosure-Facing "Homeless Hotel" Announces Closure, Leaving City Officials Scrambling For Relocation Options While Dozens Of Residents (Including 33 Children) Face The Boot

In Lansing, Michigan, the Lansing State Journal reports:

• The closure of a south Lansing hotel that offers shelter to between 50 to 70 people who are homeless doesn't yet warrant declaring a state of emergency, a city official said.
  
  But Joan Jackson Johnson, the city's human relations and community services director, said it is a "housing emergency" Lansing needs to deal with.
  
  Management at the Magnuson Hotel sent a letter to people staying there [] notifying them of the closure, said Johnson. The hotel is the base for the Homeless Angels, a nonprofit that takes donations to pay for rooms there for people who are homeless. Many of them are families with children.
  
  ***
  Johnson said the news of the hotel's closure reminds her of the struggle city officials faced when the now shuttered Life O'Riley Mobile Home Park was condemned for health code violations in 2014. More than 100 residents of the park were displaced.
  
  ***
  According to the county treasurer's office, the Magnuson faces foreclosure by March 31 unless more than $110,000 in delinquent property taxes are paid.
  
  And in May officials at the Lansing Board of Water and Light said [the landlord] owed more than $51,000 in unpaid water and sewer charges, the fault of a broken meter at the property.

For the story, see Lansing official: 'Homeless hotel' closure an emergency (Closure of Magunsson Hotel could leave 50-70 people on the streets).

For a follow-up story, see:

Bernero declares housing emergency (Mayor Virg Bernero said city officials are committed to helping relocate 91 people who are homeless before the south Lansing hotel they're staying at closes):

• [J]oan Jackson Johnson, the city's human relations and community services director, said of the 91 people receiving shelter at the Magnuson through The Homeless Angels, a nonprofit founded by Mike Karl, 33 are children. Jackson Johnson visited the hotel Monday to determine how many people would be affected.
  
  Those numbers are higher than the 50-70 Karl estimated Monday, and the 89 cited in the city's emergency declaration press release.

Judge grants temporary restraining order against Magnuson owner (An Ingham County Circuit Court judge has issued a temporary restraining order against the owner of a south Lansing hotel that is housing dozens of homeless families, preventing him from closing its doors on Sept. 12).

See, generally, Lansing’s ‘homeless hotel’ a grassroots effort with big dreams.