Dental Implants Near Charlotte, NC

A letter to the city council also said the hotel's owners did not cooperate with city staff and community partners.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two weeks after WCNC Charlotte provided an update on residents at the maligned Lamplighter Inn, the city of Charlotte has confirmed it's shutting the motel down and helping neighbors find housing accommodations.

The city confirmed Friday it shared an update letter with the city council about what was happening. City staff said the inn will be closed on December 11, affecting its 68 residents.

"City staff and community partners will start informing residents today of the closure and ensuring they understand how to access resources available to them through the city’s displacement protocol and community partners," part of the letter reads. "The city has been and will continue to work with its partners to relocate the impacted residents. Residents that have not initiated relocation assistance from the city’s partner agencies will be provided clear instructions for how to do so. Residents that are unable to relocate by December 11 will be provided temporary housing at another hotel or referred to the county’s coordinated entry to connect to homelessness services."

The letter also said the inn's owner blocked access to the building for repairs to the boiler, leaving residents without hot water. Further, city staff said the owner has not cooperated with them and community partners.

City staff also shared the flyer that was given to Lamplighter Inn residents about how to get help.

Credit: City of Charlotte

The Lamplighter Inn was supposed to be home to a transitional housing nonprofit for neighbors in need. But as WCNC Charlotte found in July 2024, the promised "Vermelle's Place" program never materialized. Residents said they started getting suspicious after a few days of getting settled, and the hotel owner said he had no idea about a housing program and never worked with one before, only adding more confusion to the situation.

On top of the hotel's response at the time, the nonprofit behind the program said they are not connected to it.

Residents have faced numerous health and safety concerns, from water issues to retaliation. One resident said the card reader to activate room keys was taken away and that she and others had to either keep their doors open or break into their own rooms.

The letter shared with the city council was also shared by city staff with WCNC Charlotte. It provided a timeline of recent events, starting on Oct. 31, 2024.

On that date, city staff said it activated its displacement protocol when the inn's owners became unresponsive and utilities were cut off. Crisis Assistance Ministry put utility services in its name to restore service and get on-site staff to help residents.

Residents were told Friday, Nov. 22 that all utilities would be disconnected on Dec. 11. The Charlotte Fire Department will close the inn that day and all residents need to leave at that time.

The letter notes the Lamplighter Inn had a code enforcement case open in all of its units, but they were first brought back up to compliance by 2023. However, the current situation that started at the end of October saw 21 new cases. Seven of those cases are in the civil penalty process, with the hotel facing more than $13,000 in civil penalties as of Nov. 20. A code enforcement hearing was held on Nov. 19, but no attendees were present.

The inn's owner was then ordered to achieve compliance by either making repairs or by demolition.

Other partners helping residents include the Housing Collaborative, Legal Aid of North Carolina, Action NC, and more.

Residents at the Lamplighter Inn aren't alone in their dilemma; tenants at the Tanglewood Apartments in Charlotte are facing sudden evictions as well after living with mold, roaches, and other health concerns. Neighbors told WCNC Charlotte that claims by the complex's owner they weren't paying rent were far from the truth.

For the latest breaking news, weather and traffic alerts that impact you from WCNC Charlotte, download the WCNC Charlotte mobile app and enable push notifications.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport filled out paper ballots on a busy Friday before Thanksgiving to decide whether to go on a 24-hour strike during the holidays.

What You Need To Know

The vote is being taken by employees of ABM and Prospect Airport Services, which provide services such as cleaning interiors of the planes, removing trash and escorting passengers in wheelchairs.

Charlotte Douglas said in a news release it is expecting 1.02 million passengers departing between Thursday and Monday before the holiday. The date of the proposed strike has not been announced.

Dorothy Griffin has been working for ABM for seven years and said she provides equipment for people to clean the cabins of planes between flights.

“We're voting on our strike because we're not treated fairly, we're not paid fairly," said Griffin. "We're not respected in our jobs. We just want higher and more wages and a little respect.”

Griffin said the workers have long complained about the working conditions, saying they don’t always have access to drinking water. Griffin said her wages are so low that she doesn’t have money to pay for repairs to her car.

“If we stop working, the airport is going to stop. The planes can’t go,” Griffin said.

ABM issued a statement saying that it would take steps to minimize disruptions from any demonstrations.

“At ABM, we appreciate the hard work our team members put in every day to support our clients and help keep spaces clean and people healthy," the company said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. "We are aware of the planned demonstration over the busy holiday travel season and are taking steps to minimize any potential service disruption.”

Suzanne Mucklow, a representative for Prospect Airport Services, said in a statement to the AP that the company recognizes the seriousness of the potential for a strike during the holiday.

“Prospect Airport Services is proud to provide higher wages, experienced leadership, and comprehensive benefits to all our employees, including the dedicated team members working at Charlotte Douglas International Airport,” Mucklow said. "We prioritize consistent and transparent communication with all our employees, ensuring they receive fair compensation and robust career advancement opportunities.”

Lashonda Barber, who works for ABM as a trash truck driver, said the company's employees have been asking to be unionized and don't get paid sick or vacation time.

“This is very important and the strike vote will hopefully make a difference,” said Barber.

She said the decision to vote to strike for 24 hours was not easy for her financially.

“To lose a day of work, it's going to hurt us in the long run,” Barber said.

Nemiah Sydney, of Atlanta, was traveling through the airport on Friday and said he supported the workers voting to strike, although he hoped it would not affect his travel plans.

“They got families they got to take care of. They gotta fight for a better wage,” Sydney said, calling them the essential workers of the airports.

The west Charlotte hotel where people have lived in poor conditions will close in December, and some tenants will be moved to other hotels, a city housing employee said at a press conference Friday.

All residents staying at the Lamplighter Inn will need to be out of the hotel by Dec. 11, said Warren Wooten, assistant director for affordable housing with the city of Charlotte. That’s because the city will cut off all utilities at the property located on Eddleman Road off Interstate 85, he said.

“The Lamplighter Inn is deemed unsafe for residents,” Wooten said, “The situation has become unsustainable, requiring further action be taken.”

The city’s announcement came after conditions deteriorated at the hotel for the people living there, many of whom might be homeless otherwise. Charlotte’s mayor on Friday called for elected officials to look for any policy changes that might prevent those situations.

Leslie Blaser, an operations manager at the city’s Housing and Neighborhood Services office, and Assistant City Manager Shawn Heath also attended the online press conference, which came about a week after the city clarified that previous information it shared about tenants receiving a 30-day vacate notice was incorrect.

Residents were notified at the hotel in west Charlotte on Friday about the plan. Fliers have been made in English and Spanish to tell people staying at the hotel about the property closing.

If any of the approximately 68 people occupying 35 rooms at the hotel have nowhere else to go when the property closes, they will be given assistance, Wooten said, including help moving to another hotel.

Tenants who can afford it will have to pay to stay at the new hotel rooms, but those who can’t will receive some kind of financial assistance through the city’s contractual relationship with the nonprofit Crisis Assistance Ministry, Wooten said.

Carol Hardison, the CEO of Crisis Assistance Ministry who also spoke at the press conference, said staff from Action NC, a nonprofit, will visit the hotel in the coming weeks to make sure residents understand the upcoming closure.

The nonprofit, which provides financial assistance for rent and utilities, also manages the city’s Mass Displacement Project, she said. All utility services at the hotel were put under Crisis Assistance Ministry’s own accounts to get services restored, Wooten said.

Crisis Assistance Ministry has helped find potential hotels the tenants could be moved into from the Lamplighter Inn.

Hardison said three confirmed hotels have availability for the tenants. Each hotel was submitted to Code Enforcement for checks and none have any violations.

“The folks that have been there, that suggested them to us, said they’re decent hotels,” Hardison said at the press conference. They will still be “a low-end hotel, but not something with these issues.”

She said Crisis Assistance Ministry will help organize the effort to relocate people to their new hotel rooms.

Donations allowed the project team to purchase items like large storage bags to help make moving tenants’ belongings easier. Volunteers, from local churches to community groups, will help move the tenants and their belongings using their vehicles, she said.

“I support the decision to move people to safe and decent housing, even if temporarily,” Hardison said in an interview with The Charlotte Observer. “Because where they’re staying — nobody should be forced to live in conditions like that.”

A Charlotte Observer investigation published in July found that several of the over 60 people living at the hotel moved in early this year believing they’d be part of a nonprofit-run supportive housing program called Vermelle’s Place. But the program, which advertised counseling, health services and affordable rent, never happened.

Instead, the tenants were left stranded in rooms with leaking ceilings, cockroaches, poor plumbing, and water they didn’t feel comfortable drinking. Conditions have deteriorated since then, tenants have said.

Utilities are just part of the problem, they’ve said. Trash has stopped being collected consistently and has piled up, attracting pests and rodents, and creating a safety and health hazard. And key cards for their doors have stopped working, risking locking them out.

The city decided the hotel should close because of utility cutoffs, code violations, and a lack of cooperation from the owner, Wooten said.

The building was deemed unsafe for habitation by the Charlotte Fire Department, said Jerry Green, the city’s enforcement division manager.

Mayor Vi Lyles apparently wasn’t happy about the living conditions at the hotel.

Wooten said Lyles issued a “policy referral” on Friday to the City Council’s Housing, Safety and Community Committee, which focuses on the city’s enforcement authority for minimum housing code violations.

“The referral calls for a review of potential policy considerations to strengthen the city’s ability to ensure safe housing for residents of lodging establishments and multi-family dwellings,” he said.

The city, which has not yet responded to a public records request by The Charlotte Observer seeking information on code violations at the hotel, said Friday there are 21 open cases. That detail came in a press release after the news conference.

There was a code enforcement hearing on Nov. 19 for the property, but no one showed up on behalf of the property.

“Following a hearing, a Findings of Fact and Order is issued, establishing a 30-day period for the property owner to achieve compliance through Repair or Demolition,” the press release said. “Cost of repairs must exceed 65% of the building value to fall into demolition category.”

There is no timeline of how long people can stay each new hotel, Wooten said. It will depend on how long the establishment allows them to be there.

A hotel room isn’t the best place “for permanent human habitation, but many residents in Charlotte do live in hotels,” he said. “It is absolutely our goal and hope that they all move towards more appropriate housing unit.”

He said the city has helped people in hotels like this in the past, and “had a very high success rate” of moving residents into long-term living.

The press release said the city launched its plan to work with nonprofits at the Lamplighter on Oct. 31 after utilities were turned off and the owner became unresponsive.

Green confirmed the owner is Chandresh Patel, who previously said he sold the property.

“We have not had any contact with Mr. Patel lately. He has kind of gone off the grid,” Green said. “We’ve put several calls, voicemails trying to reach him, and he has been unresponsive.”

Supervising Attorney Justin Tucker and staff attorneys from Legal Aid of North Carolina spoke to some tenants about potential legal pathways available to them at a tenants’ meeting on Sunday, Nov. 17, in the hotel’s parking lot.

Housing Collaborative, another nonprofit, is working with tenants to find permanent housing. Alicia Harvey, a tenant who has been living at the hotel since February, said they’ve reached out to help them find a home.

“I hope that our response is special,” said Wooten, the city housing official. “Our City Council deeply cares about our residents, and so tools like the displacement response, the work that we do with Carol [Hardison] is a way that we can step in and provide resources to people that are experiencing maybe one of the lowest points in their life.”

This story was originally published November 22, 2024, 1:22 PM.

The Charlotte Observer

Jeff A. Chamer is a breaking news reporter for the Charlotte Observer. He’s lived a few places, but mainly in Michigan where he grew up. Before joining the Observer, Jeff covered K-12 and higher education at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette in Massachusetts.

NC State’s Men’s Soccer defeated Charlotte 2-1 in Double Overtime this evening at home in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.

This marks the first time that the Wolfpack have won a game in the NCAA Tournament since 2018, and the 9th time in school history that they have advanced to the 2nd round.

NC State dominated the game, but they couldn’t put the ball into the net until the 86th minute. The Wolfpack had 15 shots compared to Charlotte’s 8 shots. They also had 10 corner kicks, while the 49ers had only 2. Despite the disparity, Charlotte scored with 1 minute left in regulation to send the game to Overtime.

After both teams failed to score in the first Overtime period, the Wolfpack scored at the 7:35 mark in the 2nd Overtime period.

PHILLIP FINDS THE BACK OF THE NET

86' | NC STATE 1, Charlotte 0#GoPack || #90MinuteParty pic.twitter.com/lNyrC8l547

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

1-0 ???? pic.twitter.com/VSNMUEIOmB

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

2-1 !!!! pic.twitter.com/rfQWLd0Tek

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

Safe to say Niko Marcovic is never going to forget his first collegiate goal.#GoPack || #90MinuteParty pic.twitter.com/JeBGfvHKqp

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

WOLFPACK WINNNNN!!!! pic.twitter.com/6qzyXe6rq9

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

Let’s go to bed ???????????? pic.twitter.com/Co2hh0qynh

— NC State Men's Soccer (@PackMensSoccer) November 22, 2024

The Wolfpack will now play at Georgetown on Sunday at Noon. The Hoyas are the #4 seed in the NCAA Tournament. At the end of the regular season, the Wolfpack finished ranked 21st in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, and the Hoyas finished ranked 24th, but they went on to win the Big East Championship.

La Niña returns, and that's not good news for snow lovers.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As of Nov. 21, 2023, Charlotte has gone 1,028 days with zero snow. This is by far the longest snow drought in the city's history, and it includes two snowless seasons in the past two years, both of which were firsts for Charlotte.

So, can we break this drought this year? Here's a look at the ingredients that go into this year's winter forecast.

La Niña, characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, significantly impacts winter weather patterns in the Carolinas. We had three straight winters with La Niña before last year's El Niño pattern.

Here's what you can expect:

Credit: wcnc

The amount of snowfall in Siberia during October can indeed influence winter weather patterns on the East Coast of the U.S. Here's how:

While near-average snowfall in Siberia can contribute to a more stable polar vortex and milder winter conditions on the East Coast, it doesn't rule out the chance of occasional cold spells.

Credit: wcnc

Above-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) can significantly impact winter weather in the Carolinas. This, combined with a warming climate, is the main cause of our snowfall and cold trending down over time in the winter here in the Carolinas.

Credit: wcnc

We have only had an above-average snowfall in five out of the past 20 years, and the trends aren't looking higher right now.

The combination of the La Niña, warm water, and below-average arctic sea ice just keeps moving cold air sources for the region. At the same time, I see us having a mild to warm winter with below-average snowfall again. I do think we will break the snow drought this year with 1 to 2 inches of snow at some point this winter. Our averages for snowfall are so low it honestly only takes one good storm to give us above-average snowfall.

Even if the rest of the winter is warm and dry, take a look at the forecast in maps with this gallery.

Credit: wcnc

Credit: wcnc

Contact Brad Panovich at bpanovich@wcnc.com or follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.

????️ If you like weather, watch Brad Panovich and the WCNC Weather Impact Team on their Emmy Award-winning Weather IQ YouTube channel. ????