CHELMSFORD, Mass. —When Billie McLean entered the hospital in November 2013 for a procedure to remove an endometrial mass, she expected to be out of work for no more than a week.

But after surgery, McLean said she developed a blood clot the size of a softball and was rushed back to the operating room. During her eight-week recovery, McLean lost her job as a personal-care assistant. Unable to pay rent, she was evicted from the Lowell apartment that she and her young son, Brandon, now 6, called home.

Billie McLean, left, and Jordan Green discuss their experiences living at a Best Western. “This not a vacation,” McLean said. “I will debate anybody who thinks we have it easy here.” Caley McGuane /The Lowell Sun

With nowhere else to turn, McLean called upon the state Department of Transitional Assistance for help. In March 2014, McLean and her son were placed at the Best Western in Chelmsford through a state program that temporarily places homeless families in hotels and motels.

Or at least it’s supposed to be temporary – she and Brandon have been there ever since.

McLean said she’s grateful to have somewhere to stay, but she doesn’t want to continue living in a cramped hotel room. She said she’s trying to better her and her son’s lives, so they can leave.

“We never considered this our home – we don’t want it to be our home,” she said. “I want to have a place where I can hang up a decoration if I want, where my son can have toys and we can have separate bedrooms.”

MANY RESTRICTIONS

It certainly doesn’t feel like home, especially at this time of year. McLean set up a fake Christmas tree for her son, but it was removed from the room by hotel management, which cited crowding concerns.

The families also aren’t allowed to hang decorations on the walls, windows or lamps – and that’s just the start of the restrictions placed on them.

According to state rules, families in hotels aren’t allowed to have visitors in their rooms, except for authorized service providers or members of other homeless families staying at the hotel. No more than six people are allowed in a room at any time. Visitors are permitted in common areas only as permitted by hotel management. If the families want to baby-sit for one another, they have to seek approval from the state at least two days in advance.

There are on-premises and in-room curfews, and any overnight stays elsewhere by homeless families or individual members must be approved ahead of time by the state – even if a child simply wants to sleep over at a friend’s house for the night. They’re not allowed to have unauthorized appliances or alcohol on the premises. Each member of a family can have only two large garbage bags of personal items. Anything above that is disallowed. Hotel staff need only “good cause”– such as suspicion of illegal activity or prohibited items – to search through their belongings.

Hotels can also institute their own house rules, provided they do not interfere with state shelter rules, emergency-assistance regulations and other legal requirements.

McLean tried for months to find another job and only recently obtained a vehicle. Without reliable transportation, her options were severely limited. She would frequently walk to the Career Center of Lowell while Brandon was in school to try to find a job.

In September, McLean finally found employment at a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, but 30 hours per week at minimum wage isn’t enough for her to find a place of her own.

TRYING THEIR BEST

The state offers $8,000 rental assistance to families in their first year out of the hotel/motel program, provided the landlord accepts it. McLean said she’s afraid to take up that offer until she makes enough money to ensure she and Brandon don’t end up right back in a hotel after that assistance dries up. But as a single mother who can’t afford day care, McLean said she’s not sure how she’s going to make that happen.

Kathy Kelley, hotel manager at the Best Western, said many people have an idea of homeless families that doesn’t match up with reality. Most do have jobs and are trying to do the best they can, she said, but housing shortages can keep them in the hotel longer than they would like.

“These are good people trying to raise their children,” Kelley said.

Richard Michaud, legal counsel for the hotel, said the Best Western provides many amenities for the families that other hotels do not, such as daily breakfast, use of the pool and entertainment opportunities for children.

Sometimes families complain about rules, Michaud said, but they are all based on maintaining safety.

“Nobody is saying these are ideal conditions,” he said. “They are a stopgap to being on the street.”

The Best Western houses a substantial number of homeless families, but that program may be in danger because of new Board of Health regulations in Chelmsford that limit stays in hotel rooms based on size of the space, amenities available and the number of people. As the regulations are written, the required room size is larger than any of the rooms at the hotel, effectively eliminating it from participation. The Board of Health has acknowledged it will need to make some amendments to the regulations before they take effect July 1.

PRODDING THE STATE

The board has said its intent in instituting the regulations is to both protect the families from harmful conditions and prod the state to take responsibility for the people it is leaving in cramped rooms where they have no privacy and can’t prepare healthy meals for long periods of time.

State Rep. Tom Golden applauded the Board of Health for its action to protect the well-being of the families and bring a sensitive issue that needs more attention to the forefront.

“You can’t uproot people, but at the same time, you can’t leave them there,” said the Lowell Democrat. “They’re starting a conversation, albeit very aggressively, but still that conversation needs to happen. What do we do with the individuals who find themselves in this position?”

Jordan Green, 34, was placed at the Best Western with his girlfriend, Rebecca, and their 41/2-year-old disabled son a few months after McLean.

They’d had an apartment of their own in Derry, N.H., when their son was born, Green said, but Rebecca’s extended maternity leave put her job in jeopardy and they were evicted. They then moved in with her mother in Haverhill, but all were evicted there, too, following disputes the mother had with the landlord and neighbors, he said.

When they were kicked out, they maxed out their credit cards on hotel rooms, Green said. Unable to find an apartment of their own, they turned to the state.

Green works the night shift at the neighboring gas station, while Rebecca works days as a low-level manager at a New Hampshire department store.

Their son, whose disability is in the process of being diagnosed, requires constant attention and care. His needs are so great that Green said they do not trust any day-care provider to properly care for him, especially before they know his exact disability, and they don’t have family nearby that can help with any regularity. The opposite shifts they work allow them to provide that constant care for their son, Green said, but their grueling schedules don’t allow for much else.

He said they are often too tired to seek more lucrative employment on their own, and the job assistance provided by the state is lacking. They’ve been placed in subsidized housing lotteries, but the demand is high. Green said they are focused on saving as much money as they can to find their own place, and hope to find a landlord who will look past their bad credit and evictions.

McLean and Green become angry when people who don’t understand their situations think families like theirs have it easy in the hotel.

“This is not a vacation,” McLean said.

“I will debate anybody who thinks we have it easy here,” Green said. “This is not paradise.”

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