There are thousands of families in DeKalb County living in cramped, expensive extended-stay hotels in spite of having at least one family member employed and earning enough to pay for an apartment that would give them more room at a lower monthly cost, states a new report from the Georgia State University Center on Health and Homelessness. The report found that extended-stay hotels are serving as shelters of last resort for more than 4,600 people in DeKalb County, including 2,004 households and 1,635 children.
The reasons these families remain in substandard housing, according to the report, are such factors as not meeting income screening requirements for rentals and a lack of upfront costs for a security deposit. The Georgia State University (GSU) report calls it “the hidden housing crisis.”
The report found that rather than serving as a temporary living arrangement, extended-stay hotels often function as long-term housing. More than 16 percent of residents had lived in extended-stay hotels for more than five years, the study found, and an additional 45 percent had lived in hotels for one to five years…