Homeless people staying at the Magnuson Hotel will have at least another week before they could end up on the streets. On Monday an Ingham County Judge extended the city of Lansing's temporary restraining order, preventing the hotel from evicting them.
Raven Kinsey says her family doesn't want to stay in the hotel, but it's their only option.
"I don't know what to do," Kinsey said. "I feel like I'm letting my son down."
Kinsey was living at the Magnuson with her boyfriend and their 2-year-old son for a month, when they were told they had to leave. Since then they've been looking for a new home but haven't been able to find anything they can afford.
"No one wants to stay in the hotel," Kinsey said. "Everybody dreams to have an actual home and a yard for their children to play in."
The city is trying to help, in the past three weeks it's moved half of the nearly 100 people but it needs more time for the rest. City attorney Jim Smiertka argued the hotel owners should give them that time.
"They were negotiating the sale and as soon as the sale fell through they started eviction proceedings without following due process of the law," Smiertka said.
Lansing's Human Relations and Community Services Director Joan Jackson Johnson tells News 10 she's been working nonstop to find the people who are still staying at the hotel new homes. But she says many have financial or mental health histories that are making it harder to place them and she doesn't know how long it will take.
The hotel's lawyer JoAnne Gurley says her clients can't afford to stay open.
"Those people may never get placed," Gurley said. "Is the Magnuson supposed to stay open until they find some place for these people to go?"
Gurley says her clients owe the Lansing Board of Water and Light $23,000 in unpaid utilities and that doesn't count the bills the current residents are racking up.
"At some point the hotel is going to end up going bankrupt," Gurley added.
That's leaving residents like Kinsey wondering what they're supposed to do if time runs out.
"We don't know if we're going to wake up in the morning and have somewhere to sleep," she said.
The city says only 30 people are left at the Magnuson. The hotel says 40 rooms are still occupied and 14 of the people renting them are not paying. The judge says the hotel can evict people who aren't paying.
Both sides will be back in court next week.
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An Ingham County judge is expected to rule on Monday whether homeless people staying at the Magnuson Hotel will be evicted.
In September, the city of Lansing asked the court to issue an injunction prohibiting the eviction for up to 120 days.
At a hearing in September Judge James Jamo delayed his ruling but extended a temporary restraining order, giving the city at least 3 weeks to relocate the nearly 100 residents. In that time Lansing's Human Relations and Community Services Director Joan Jackson Johnson says they've moved about half of the residents.
Jackson Johnson says there are still 30 people staying at the hotel and they have been harder to find housing for.
