Jobs, Shelter : Homeless Find Room at the Inn

Maria Troy, penniless and far from home, found both a motel room and a job through a national motel chain’s program to help the homeless.

“Roughly about 35% of the hotel rooms in the United States go empty every night on an average,” said Mike Leven, president and chief operating officer of Atlanta-based Days Inn of America. “And certainly other businesses could do the same kind of housing, training and rehabilitation that we’ve done.”

Troy and her 9-year-old son, John, were among the first 10 to 15 people helped by the program. They had spent two months in a shelter for the homeless before Troy was given a job taking reservations at Days Inn of America headquarters. She and her son moved into a motel owned by a Days Inn franchisee.

The two had been in the United States about two years since leaving Mexico and did not have enough money to rejoin Troy’s family there.

‘I’m a Human Being’

They finally went home last month. In an interview before their departure, Troy said Days Inn made her “feel like I’m not just an employee or a computer--I’m a human being.”

So far, the program has been limited to the Atlanta area, where an estimated 10,000 people are homeless.

Participants often work in reservations, where they make $4.50 to $5.50 an hour plus incentives. They are provided rooms at half the normal rate of $20 a day, with Days Inn making up the difference to the franchisee.

“We do it through a payroll deduction,” Leven said. “They’re able to get a decent place to stay. They pay 50% of it from their wages, and we pay the other 50%, and then they’re rehabilitated into the work force and trained and put into work. Some of them have already been promoted and left our jobs for better jobs.”

Got Promotion

Troy had been promoted from reservations to a position involving tours and special packages before she left.

“Happily, Maria reached a point where she could make a choice and . . . do what she felt was best for her,” said Carol Bivins, the motel chain’s vice president of public relations.

In Washington, Michele Kelley of the American Hotel and Motel Assn. said she knew of no other such programs in the lodging industry.

‘Such an Issue’

“I think we’re going to see it more and more from the public in general, that they’re going to do more for the homeless because it’s such an issue,” Kelley said.

Leven started the program in February, 1988, after being asked to visit a homeless shelter with the idea of possibly making a donation.

“Mike Leven spent one evening at the shelter and turned around and said: ‘Why don’t we do something that will really make a difference? Why don’t we do something that really will employ some of the homeless?’ ” Bivins said.

A Days Inn job meant the end of life in a shelter for Delores Smith, 31, and her three children, ranging from 16 months to 12 years old.

Smith, who spent about three months in a homeless shelter last year before she joined the Days Inn program, came to Atlanta from Colorado looking for work.

“I had been seeking work for a long time,” she recalled. “Every day I would go out and I would fill out applications, and nobody ever responded.”

A cashier’s job she had briefly did not work out. And in April, 1988, she entered the shelter.

“That was the end of my hope,” she said.

She recalled that a woman at the shelter “just looked at me and said: ‘I don’t think you want to be in here. Would you like a job?’ She asked if I could type. I said yes. She got me in contact with Days Inn.”

She chose to stay at the shelter briefly and then found an apartment.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself now,” Smith said.

“I think there’s a lot of people out there who just need a chance. That’s what they gave me; they gave me a chance.