Residents forced to leave after West Springfield motel deemed unsafe

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Residents at the Bel Air Inn in West Springfield were forced to find other living arrangements on short notice Friday after the city revoked the property’s certificate of residency.

People 22News spoke to said they were notified by staff around 6 p.m. Thursday that they had to be packed up and out of the building by 11 a.m., leaving most without a place to stay.

According to the West Springfield Building Department, the owner of the property was conducting significant renovations to rooms at the motel without proper permits so they issued a stop work order which was allegedly ignored, forcing them to revoke the certificate of occupancy because it was unsafe for people to continue living there during the renovations.

Now amid a housing crisis, they are forced to find a new place.

“We lived here five years. Good memories, bad memories. This is definitely not the way we wanted to leave. We have to pack up five years of our life and move to who knows where,” said Kirsten Chase, a resident.

22News spoke with both long and short-term residents of the Bel Air Inn, all blindsided by the announcement Thursday night that they had to leave. They described the conditions, some living there for as long as five years, as tough but a place to stay and have remained that way since the new owner took over.

The owner, who was at the property Friday morning told 22News he purchased the property in February with the hope of fixing it up and said he is working on designs to make that happen but couldn’t comment on the immediate future of the property.

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Duncan MacLean is a reporter who has been a part of the 22News team since 2019. Follow Duncan on X @DMacLeanWWLP and view his bio to see more of his work.

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