The billboard for the Town and Country Inn stands over the hotel in Chattanooga. Some of the residents of Town and Country perform chores for the hotel in exchange for rent. Now many are being forced to leave.New owners at Town & Country Inn have issued another round of eviction notices, telling longtime tenants at the extended-stay hotel to get out within the week.
Several residents, who claim to be up to date on rent payments, said one of the new owners from Florida, Jeff McFarland, is trying to clean house at the hotel that once let homeless people work in exchange for rooms.
“They are trying to get rid of the undesirables,” said Joe Fason, who lived and worked at Town & Country on East 23rd Street for six years and is being evicted.
Fason, who said he can’t work because of chronic shaking and respiratory problems, will move to federally subsidized housing at Patten Towers on 11th Street, but most of the residents, who came to Town & Country as a last resort, could go back onto the streets.
“[McFarland] is making a lot of people with disabilities leave because they are in their rooms all day using electricity, using the television,” Fason said.