05/20/2008

Associated Press

At least eight longtime residents of a Seattle motel are refusing to leave, despite a state order that they vacate because of unsanitary and unsafe conditions.

Residents of the Green Lake Motel were supposed to be out by midnight Sunday. The remaining residents say they have nowhere else to go and would be homeless.

The motel was ordered closed after a state Health Department inspector reported problems that included a faulty fire alarm, cockroaches and piles of trash. The manager of the hotel inspection program, Shannon Walker, says inspectors are concerned for the safety of tenants.

One woman who has lived in a motel unit for 24 years, Beverly Veal, says the Salvation Army has offered residents a one-week hotel voucher, but she doesn't know where she would go after that.

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/