Waterbury bans hourly motel rentals in effort to curb illegal activity

The Waterbury Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Monday night to approve an ordinance banning hourly hotel and motel room rentals in the city. It’s a move city officials say is aimed at reducing crime, including human trafficking and prostitution.

“We know that rooms rented by the hour cause only one thing, and that’s problems,” Paul Kondash, a city resident who supports the ordinance, said.

Proposed by Mayor Paul Pernerewski Jr., the ordinance prohibits any hotel, motel or rooming house from renting rooms for fewer than 12 hours at a time.

Pernerewski said the ordinance is another tool to help law enforcement address criminal activity in the area.

“If you’re renting a room for an hour, three, four hours, we know what’s happening in there. It’s either prostitution, sex trafficking, there’s drug use, drug sales, maybe gambling as well…none of those things are legal, and they all drag down the neighborhood, the quality of life for everyone in Waterbury,” he said. “There’s no legitimate person that I know that’s coming to Waterbury looking to rent a hotel room for four hours.”

“There’s only really two hotels that we believe in Waterbury that do that. They will both tell you they don’t, but we believe that they do that in shorter blocks,” Pernerewski continued.

The mayor said the two hotels that have historically offered hourly rates are the Big Apple Motel on West Main Street and the Valley Motel on South Main Street.

NBC Connecticut called both the Big Apple and Valley motels on Monday. Aijaz Ahmad, owner of the Big Apple Motel, said his business stopped offering hourly rentals years ago.

“More than two years ago, we stopped those. We don’t give them no more,” Ahmad said. “A lot of people are traveling, and you can never judge it, but we’re not giving them.”

When asked whether he supports the ordinance, Ahmad replied, “Yes, we don’t want the prostitutes around here.”

Shortly before 8 p.m. Monday, NBC Connecticut called the Valley Motel without identifying ourselves, and inquired about hourly rates. A woman who answered the phone initially said it’s “too late,” but when asked about hourly rates the next day, she said a two-hour stay would cost $70.

A follow-up call identifying the station was answered, but a request to speak to the owner was denied.

Martin Spring, another city resident, said he supports the ordinance in theory, but questioned its broader implications.

“I think you’re violating people’s rights in a way,” Spring said. “What business is it of anybody’s what I’m doing? I understand what people are saying…you gotta look at both sides of the coin.”

“That to me would be a red light going up to people, think about it, who want to come to the city. They might look at this and say, you know, what is the city doing? What are they saying? That we can’t come in to Waterbury and we can’t rent a hotel room now?” he continued.

Safe Haven of Greater Waterbury, a nonprofit supporting survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking, voiced strong support for the ordinance.