STATESVILLE, N.C. — For the past year, Joy Menard has called the Brookwood Inn home. Like many others, she turned to the Statesville motel as a last resort amid a housing crisis. Now, with a sign posted on the front door, tenants have just four weeks to find somewhere else to go.
“No matter what bad day that you can have, at least you had a roof over your head,” Menard said.
She said the motel has provided a safe haven for her and many other families, struggling to find affordable and permanent housing.
However, her stay is ticking down.
“I have a 12-year-old that’s about to start school, and I don’t have a home for her,” Menard said. “She shouldn’t be lying in bed stressing about where she’s going to live.”
Channel 9 reported on the motel in 2019 when Denise Sharrow, the motel’s manager, helped turned it into a weekly stay for families.
Tenants pay a weekly rent with all utilities included.
Sharrow said she helped raise money through her organization, Acts of Kindness Family Ministry, when tenants were short on rent.
“Very worried and concern,” Sharrow said. “This has broken my heart.”
Sharrow is still managing the motel and said the owner didn’t tell her why it is shutting down.
The closure will impact 21 families.
James Day moved in the motel three years ago after he lost his home in Gastonia.
“A lady run her car into (the home),” he said. “We had to leave. That was horrible. And this right here just seems like it’s taking me back three years to that day.”
He said they were notified about the closure on Monday.
“Four weeks is no time to do anything,” he said.
Menard also doesn’t know what to do.
“I don’t know my next step,” she said. “I don’t even know where to get the next step.”
Sharrow is raising money through her ministry.
“It’s going to be difficult, but there are alternatives, and we’ll find alternatives,” Sharrow said.
Sharrow is accepting donations through her organization Acts of Kindness Family Ministry.
To learn about donating, click here.
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