Homeless Again After Fire Guts a Homey Hotel

The holiday season at the Mayfair Hotel started with a bountiful Thanksgiving feast, but now the low-income residents are facing a bleak Christmas in the aftermath of a fire that left them homeless.

The downtown Pomona hotel--the only one in the area that accepts emergency housing vouchers from the county--has been closed indefinitely after a fire in the hotel basement Friday night sent residents fleeing into the street.

Since then, more than 30 residents of the 60-room hotel have been unable to find another affordable place to stay and have been sleeping every night in an emergency shelter set up by the Pomona Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Rose Johnson, who had moved into the hotel a few weeks ago with her husband, Kermith, and 10-year-old daughter Shadona. “The whole thing is, we need a place to live. Without a place to live, you can’t do anything.”

Kermith, 38, an appliance technician who has been unable to find steady employment, said he thought things were looking up when he moved into the Mayfair with his wife and daughter.

At $100 a week, the room was affordable, he said, and the atmosphere was friendly. Sylvia Hernandez, who managed the hotel and lived there with her six children, cooked a Thanksgiving feast that included six turkeys and invited everyone to dinner in the lobby.

Johnson said: “I enjoyed this Thanksgiving more than I enjoyed any Thanksgiving in the last five or six years.”

But about 11:45 the next night, hotel employees saw smoke curling up from the basement, called the Fire Department and ran through the halls, pounding on doors. Everyone managed to get out safely.

Owner Ed Uehling said the fire, which caused an estimated $400,000 damage, apparently started because of an electrical malfunction and spread from the basement to a restaurant on the first floor. In the hotel, which occupies the second through fifth floors, firefighters knocked in doors, ceilings and walls while battling the blaze, and there was extensive smoke damage.

Uehling said he hopes to repair and reopen the hotel, but is waiting for the city to assess the structure and tell him what he is legally permitted to do.

The building also housed a cocktail lounge, dentist’s office and barbershop, all closed because of the fire.

The Mayfair was “state of the art” when it opened, Uehling said, but that was in 1915. The building was constructed by a former Pomona postmaster, Walter Moore Avis, and opened as the Avis Hotel.

The hotel declined over the years, but was remodeled at least twice and was providing low-cost housing for the working poor and those on government assistance. About half the rooms, Uehling said, were occupied by residents placed there by a county program to help the homeless.

Nick Hernandez, director of the Pomona office of the county Public Social Services Department, said the Mayfair was the only hotel in the Pomona area participating in the county voucher program, which provides shelter, a week at a time, for homeless persons while they try to obtain permanent residences and seek other assistance or jobs. The Mayfair rented rooms to the county for $16 a day.

Hernandez said that since there is no other hotel available in the Pomona area, residents who were living at the Mayfair at county expense will be offered rooms at hotels in downtown Los Angeles that have rates of $13.50 and $14 a night. “We’ll also provide transportation there,” Hernandez said.

But, Hernandez conceded, that may not be an attractive offer for those who have ties to the Pomona area.

Tom Kirven, Red Cross disaster chairman, said many of those displaced by the fire are trying to find nearby accommodations on their own. A number of them have jobs, but not many can afford the first and last month’s rent needed to move into even the cheapest apartments, he said.

The Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Pomona Valley YMCA on the night of the fire. The next day, the shelter was moved to the gymnasium at the Pomona First Baptist Church to take advantage of kitchen facilities. The Red Cross has been providing breakfast and dinner.

Kirven said the Red Cross intends to keep the shelter open until residents find other accommodations, and is trying to provide additional assistance with the initial rent to help people get re-established. But, he said, the expense is draining the Pomona Valley chapter’s budget for disaster services, and money donations are being solicited.

Mary Gonzalez, 29, a cosmetology student, said she and a roommate had been at the Mayfair for four months, ever since they lost $1,500 to a man they say posed as the owner of a rental house in Fontana. They moved into the house and then were evicted by the real owner, they said, leaving them without the money to rent an apartment. So they came to the Mayfair.

Gonzalez said they found residents of the Mayfair eager to help each other. “You’d walk up the stairs, and neighbors’ doors would be open. You’d talk to each other. It was like a family.”

Judi Jones, a retired teacher who had lived at the Mayfair for five years, said she always kept a pot of chili in her room to feed anyone in need of a meal.

“I have a very bad back and emphysema,” she said, “and six or seven people would go to the market for me. They all helped me, but I helped them too. . . . It just breaks my heart to lose my home. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Bobby (Bean) Hardin, 43, said, “It’s kind of like breaking up with the family. We’re not related, but we’re related in friendship.”

Ten-year-old Shadona Johnson said she is grateful for the emergency help her family has received but she’s worried about the future. “I want to thank all the Red Crosses,” she said. “They did good for us when we was down. They fed us. They put a roof over our heads. (But) the biggest Christmas present I could have right now is a home.”

HOW TO HELP The Pomona Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross is soliciting financial donations to help replenish its disaster services fund, which has been depleted by its assistance to residents displaced by the Mayfair Hotel fire. The chapter’s address is 675 N. Park Ave., Pomona 91766. The phone number is (714) 622-1348.