As counties across the state have increasingly had to rely on hotels to house families experiencing homelessness, residents who are placed in them consistently say some of these hotels are in poor condition with little being done to fix the problems.
The county social service departments are required to inspect the hotels based off a checklist provided by the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance and are responsible for ensuring that the hotels meet local housing code requirements.
But the OTDA doesn’t perform any inspections itself, and so as long as counties pass the hotels, the state accepts their reports.
However, a review in three counties shows the inspection reports don’t always line up with the realities of living conditions.
A Spectrum News report from November 2025 found that the Budget Inn in Syracuse, where Onondaga County places some families, found dead rodents, rodent droppings, dirty appliances and broken glass in the parking lots. However, the hotel has not had significant code violations, according to reports from the city’s code enforcement department. The Onondaga County Department of Social Services inspected the hotel in August 2025 and that showed no violations.
An interior hallway inside of the Hillside Inn. (Spectrum News 1/Emily Kenny)
The Parkway Inn in Vestal, Broome County, in July was deemed “unfit for human occupancy” by code enforcement in July, and since corrected most of the violations. An inspection report by Broome County’s DSS done in January does not report any of the issues from the July town report and only included photos from outside the building.
Spectrum News obtained code inspection reports from the Hillside Inn in Binghamton, which is also used to house families. An inspection from June cited fire safety violations, electrical hazards and issues with the exterior of the building. However, the report doesn’t show any photos of the interior of guest rooms.
Most recently, residents at the Kingston Motel in Ulster County have said the building has concerning conditions such as electrical and maintenance issues, bed bugs and even clean water and raw sewage problems. A report from 2023 declared that the sanitary waste disposal system had deficiencies and deemed the building unsafe for occupancy.
Amanda Lewis, a resident at the Kingston Motel, said she has experienced poor conditions during the past year while she has lived there. When she first arrived, she was in a room for a single parent with one child, but she was sharing the room with her oldest daughter who also has a child of her own.
OTDA’s regulations require there to be enough beds, so children do not have to share single beds, or share beds with adults. The checklists by DSS ask if there are sufficient beds.
“I have no shower in our room, not to mention we can’t drink the water here. The water, when you do shower, it makes you feel disgusting. There’s smells that come from it,” Lewis said.
In fiscal year 2025, Ulster County spent $11.2 million on hotels for emergency housing, with $2.1 million to the Kingston Motel. A Sept. 18, 2025, town code enforcement report details multiple violations in the hotel. The report said there was mold in multiple rooms, roaches and bedbug infestations, leaking ceilings and more.
But the residents continue to live there as of September 15 when Spectrum News visited the property and spoke with residents. The owners of the hotel, Everest Hospitality LLC, declined to comment on the conditions of the property.
“We’re not supposed to drink the water, but yet we have no water to drink. So, what do we do when we don’t have water?” Lewis said.
Ulster County has not fulfilled a Freedom of Information Act request requesting its inspection reports for the motel.
Lewis said at one point she got sick from mold in her air conditioning unit that was spraying into her room.
Danielle Garris, another former resident who lived at the hotel from 2023 to July 1 of this year, said she experienced many of the same issues.
“If something is hazardous, you notify the public. So, when you get dropped off here, you have no clue where you are, what you’re doing, what resources or not and you don’t even know how you’re going to eat,” Garris said. “There is a sanitation issue. The bed bugs are rampant.”
In addition to sanitation concerns, Lewis, who has lived at the motel for a year, said there is criminal activity that can make it dangerous.
Records from the Town of Ulster Police Department show an increase in police dispatch calls to the address. In 2024, there were 123 calls; 2025 had 439; and 2026 year to date stands at 437 as of Sept. 16.
Kyle Berardi, chief of police for Ulster, said in an email they have provided “an increased proactive enforcement to the Kingston Motel.”
“I’ve had to save several people’s lives, literally getting thrown up in my mouth in the process of it — from overdoses to minors drinking alcohol that they shouldn’t be,” Lewis said. “There’s so many kids here and the fact that they have to go through a lot of these struggles, they just put us here. It’s like they shove us here in a hole in the wall and just leave us to fend for ourselves.”
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