Then: An East Ridge motel closed suddenly in November 2022 after being flagged as a nuisance by the Hamilton County District Attorney’s Office, giving hundreds of people living there less than a day’s notice to move out.
(READ MORE: ‘I have no idea what to do’: East Ridge motel residents react to possible closure)
District Attorney Coty Wamp filed a motion to shut down the Budgetel Inn as a public nuisance, citing the high volume of crime reported there.
The strain it put on first responders was unsustainable, Wamp said at the time. More than 1,400 emergency calls were made in three years from that address, East Ridge police said in a statement, most related to drug use, overdoses, assaults and disorderly conduct. Several businesses nearby also filed complaints with Wamp’s office.
At least 354 people — 228 adults and 126 children — were displaced the morning of Nov. 16, 2022, and put up in other hotels, according to Mackenzie Kelly, interim director of the Chattanooga Regional Homeless Coalition. In helping, the coalition prioritized residents with health conditions, children and those with no other place to go. Other Budgetel residents found their own housing with friends or relatives or lived out of their cars.