Slowly but steadily, things are getting better at a Portage motel that had been the site of numerous police calls.

But as the owners of the Porterhouse Motel, 1721 New Pinery Road, bring some of the motel's rooms up to standards set by city code and state statute, local officials continue to wrestle with an issue that the Porterhouse situation has raised: How widespread is the need for emergency short-term housing in Portage, and how can the need be met in a way that is safe for those in need?

"You don't want to bury your head in the sand and say that this need doesn't exist here," Mayor Ken Jahn said.

But it's vital, he said, that even inexpensive lodging spots, whose bills for tenants might be paid by local pastors, meet safety standards.

At the Porterhouse, he said, a recent inspection showed both progress and continued need for improvement.

Portage Police Chief Ken Manthey said a Nov. 20 inspection by a Columbia County health official and a state building inspector showed that 11 of the Porterhouse's 35 rooms are up to code and fit for occupancy.

However, a day after the inspection, police - responding to a call for a welfare check at the Porterhouse - heard a woman staying at the motel claim that her room had no heat.

Police found five occupied rooms that were not in compliance with the inspection, Manthey said. None of the rooms was connected to a working furnace, and the rooms were heated with electric space heaters, he said - which prompted the police and fire departments to order the rooms cleared for safety reasons.

According to Manthey, Porterhouse co-owner Cindy Meson told him the occupants had originally come to the motel with vouchers from local pastors for a one-night stay, but were moved to the unauthorized rooms and allowed to stay there, rent free, because Meson took pity on them.

Cindy Meson said she doesn't understand why she couldn't allow someone to stay in a room for free, and that the space heater found in the room was brought in by the guest.

"I thought I was doing a nice thing," she said.

Jahn, who is a member of the city's Plan Commission, said the Mesons have been given until Jan. 19 to address issues related to the motel.

But, he said, if the pair continue to make steady progress in making improvements at the Porterhouse, as they have in recent weeks, then he's willing to be patient.

Fewer police calls

In October, Manthey told the city's Plan Commission that local police had been called to the Porterhouse 130 times in the last year.

Meson noted, however, that many of those calls were actually in the vicinity of the Porterhouse, and had nothing to do with the motel - calls such as traffic stops on New Pinery Road or incidents in parking lots of nearby businesses.

And some of the calls came from the motel management - complaints about vandalism or the conduct of guests.

Between Oct. 25 and Nov. 21, however, police got only five calls to the motel, Manthey said. He noted that many of these originated from the Mesons, who either reported tenants' wrongdoing or sought welfare checks on tenants, Manthey said.

Meson said she does not hesitate to summon police if a guest breaks the law.

"If someone causes a problem," she said, "we'll get rid of them. But we can't prejudge the people who come in."

Although Manthey said motel owners can't allow people to stay in rooms that are not up to code, he said he understands how the Mesons could have been sympathetic to the wishes of a tenant who claimed to have nowhere else to go.

That's because local police have seen a spike, in recent months, in the number of people who are seeking various types of emergency aid.

"I know that all the churches are overwhelmed with people who need places to stay, food, gasoline vouchers," Manthey said.

The people seeking help may have ties to Columbia County, he said, or they may be passing through town on the way to other destinations.

"Every town with a county seat, and county services, gets this kind of influx," he said.

Short-term needs

When the police encounter someone who claims to have a need for food, fuel or shelter, Manthey said, police first will check the person's criminal record for outstanding warrants.

If there are none, then police will call members of the Portage Ministerial Association, and offer the person assistance with either buying gasoline, obtaining food or finding a place to stay for one night - but not more than one form of the assistance offered.

Many church pastors keep a discretionary fund to offer aid to people in need, Manthey said, and will offer this help through the police.

Because Portage has no facility that's designed to be short-term, low-cost housing (such as a YMCA), Jahn said, police often give vouchers for low-cost lodgings such as the Porterhouse.

Only a small percentage of the Porterhouse guests pay for their stays with vouchers from the churches, Meson said.

And if she knows that someone with a voucher has caused problems at the motel in the past, she said she won't accept the voucher.

"You know, if the police send people to us, shouldn't we assume that they're decent people who've just run into a problem?" she asked.

Jahn said short-term visitors are, as a whole, more profitable for almost any motel owner than people who stay for a long time.

Under state and city rules, people can stay at the Porterhouse as long as they want, provided that they have a permanent address other than the Porterhouse, because the motel is not licensed to offer apartments, Jahn said.

Meson said that, although most city officials (including Jahn) have been "wonderful" to her and her husband, she finds it difficult, and often frustrating, to get a handle on all the zoning, health and safety rules that apply to the Porterhouse.

Jahn said he'd like for the Mesons to succeed in operating the Portherhouse, and to keep working at bringing the rooms up to code - something he said that takes not only time, but revenue from paying guests.

"My hope is that they'd continually improve - even if it takes a year from now," Jahn said.

Meson said that's her wish, too, but the process has been frustrating.

"I'm very upset about what happened," she said. "I'm not giving up, but I'm getting pretty tired of fighting."

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com

745-3587