The plight of poor people struggling in Kissimmee-area motels is in the national spotlight, again. Reporter Greg Jaffe at The Washington Post says the pandemic has been particularly hard for workers in the service industry.
The pandemic had heaped crisis on top of crisis. The 2008 housing collapse and recession had caused the tourist market to tank at the exact moment the foreclosure crisis was forcing thousands of homeowners and overburdened renters from their homes. Struggling motel owners began renting rooms to the only customers they could find, those who had no place else to go.
In the decade that followed, the tourists returned to Orlando by the millions. Executive salaries at companies such as Disney and Universal soared. So did local real estate prices, buoyed by a booming market for gated, luxury vacation homes.
But almost nothing was done to address the reality that many service workers had emerged from the recession saddled with stagnant wages, bad credit or eviction records that made it nearly impossible for them to rent an apartment and return to a normal life. Many spent much of the past decade stuck in motels with restful names — the Paradise, the Palm, the Shining Light, the Star, the Magic Castle — that belied an increasingly grim reality for both the owners and tenants who found themselves trapped together.
Jaffe says many hospitality workers struggle to find affordable housing, even while working multiple jobs. He says even in the best of times, the service industry workers have a tough time making ends meet.
This is Jaffe's latest of a series of reports on at-risk families. His latest story focuses on desperate residents at the Star Motel in Kissimmee, where the power has been shut off several times because of unpaid bills. Struggling residents say they've lost jobs or had their hours cut because of the pandemic.
Jaffe says real estate prices are soaring because of international investment into one of the world's most popular tourist destinations. He says hotels and attractions depend on low-wage earners, but there are fewer housing options for them throughout Central Florida.
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