Remaining residents at the OYO Hotel in Centralia who were originally told to leave within three days can now stay in the rooms they were renting while they try to find new long-term housing, according to one of the new owners.
In a phone call with The Chronicle on Tuesday morning, Ross Hubbard, managing director of Centralia 86 LLC and new co-owner of the OYO Hotel building in Centralia, said he was under the impression everyone at the hotel were short-term guests passing through the area when he was finalizing the hotel’s sale with the previous owner at the beginning of February.
Now that he’s aware that isn’t the case, he is working with both the City of Centralia and Lewis County officials to make sure people aren’t evicted.
“I want to give people plenty of time. Like I said, I had no idea anyone there was anything but a traveler. I don’t want people displaced because of me. It’s the exact opposite of what we want to accomplish,” Ross Hubbard said. “We’re trying to build these out into supportive housing units so people don’t have to live in hotel rooms anymore without kitchens.”
For those still at the hotel, Salvation Army Captain Gin Pack told The Chronicle that representatives from the Northwest Justice Project will be at the site at 11 a.m. on Wednesday to give residents legal advice and help with housing resources.
Together with his wife, Emily Hubbard, Ross Hubbard helped co-found Sage Investment Group in Kirkland and both are involved in the current renovation of the old Motel 6 at 1310 Belmont Ave. They hope to have it open by the end of May as supportive housing units available to lease.
“I wish (the Motel 6) was closer to reopening. I would just take everybody and help them to move into there,” Ross Hubbard said.
He said he is working with Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing, other veterans homeless communities and the Lewis County Homeless and Housing Program to provide opportunities for people who don’t qualify for traditional housing to still have access to quality rental units.
Ross Hubbard said he feels current rental regulations set credit and income requirements many can’t afford, and background checks also prevent many from accessing stable housing options. “Iif you don’t have income, if you don’t have credit, if you’re a felon, you’re screwed. How do you get housing?” he asked.
He noted Emily Hubbard and Sage Investment Group are not officially affiliated with the purchase of the OYO site.
Instead, Ross Hubbard partnered with friend who is an investor in California, Zachary Winner, who was looking to renovate a hotel in the same manner as the Motel 6. Winner’s LLC is Absaroka North LLC in Wyoming and is listed together with Centralia 86 LLC as co-owners on the property’s warranty deed.
According to Washington state law, residents living in hotels long-term aren’t legally granted the same rights as tenants, but still must be given a written eviction notice and a week to vacate the property.
Ross Hubbard promised to give the remaining long-term residents at the OYO twice that amount of time, 14 days, on top of however much longer they had paid for rent to stay at the hotel while they search for a new place to live.
“As much as I don’t want my property to be occupied by a non-payer for five months, I also don’t want them to be kicked out in two days,” he said. “I want to give them as much time as they need over the course of the next month, and we’ll provide as many resources as possible. They’ll be invited back for longer duration supportive housing if they care to apply for the supportive housing at the Motel 6 and the OYO.”
Originally, tenants were only given a verbal eviction notice from the previous owner’s employees on Feb. 17. Occupants said they were told they had two hours to get out, which was later changed to Monday, Feb. 20, after protest from residents.
While some have moved out already, some still remain, including many with pets, which limit housing options.
According to multiple residents, 56 families called the OYO home, with some having been there for more than three years.
The previous owner, Sonny Parmar, of Shivaji Investment LLC, gave Ross Hubbard a tour of the hotel approximately three months ago. He inspected every single unit, Ross Hubbard said.
While he could see some occupants had a lot of personal belongings, Ross Hubbard said Parmar never clarified to him that people were staying in rooms for extended periods of time. Ross Hubbbard said Parmar left him with the impression the hotel was only operating with short-term guests.
“He didn’t tell me that he was leasing rooms on a month-to-month basis or leasing it longer than a hotel's 27-day standard rate of occupancy, because that’s illegal,” Ross Hubbard said. “He’s operating in a hotel zone without modern code requirements and without kitchens or accommodations that would be required of actual rental units.”
In a Tuesday morning phone call between Ross Hubbard and Parmar, Parmar was adamant he was only leasing units as hotel rooms on a nightly or weekly basis and nobody had been staying at the hotel on a long-term basis, Ross Hubbard told The Chronicle.
“He’s either lying to me or he doesn’t know,” Ross Hubbard added.
Many at OYO told The Chronicle they had essentially been trapped there, stuck working full-time jobs in some cases just to barely be able to afford monthly rates that varied between $1,500 and $1,800 per room. Some said they were unable to afford or obtain better housing.
They also talked of multiple maintenance issues over the time — in some cases years — they have lived there, including frequent power outages, loss of hot water, black mold, cockroach infestations and a lack of properly working laundry facilities. A single washer and dryer was available for the entire hotel, and residents reported the dryer “barely worked.”
“I would tell them about a problem I had in a certain room and they wouldn’t fix it. They would just move me to another,” said Elijah Gilbert, an OYO resident and father of five who works at the United Natural Foods Inc. distribution center in Centralia.
Additionally, Ross Hubbard stated he had been working with his new property manager for the OYO Hotel, T.J. Guyer Inc., and Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston to help the remaining residents find housing.
The Salvation Army and Northwest Justice Project are also continuing to provide support to residents as well.
The Chronicle has reached out to Parmar for comment but has yet to receive a response.
The OYO Hotel is located at 702 Harrison Ave. in Centralia. According to documents on the Lewis County Parcels website, the property was sold for $5,251,100.
The Northwest Justice Project provides free legal assistance to address fundamental needs including housing, for more information visit https://nwjustice.org/home.
