Nearly a decade after moving to a hotel after losing her home in foreclosure, a Wisconsin woman faces eviction for an unpaid bill of $29,000. Jana Ganjian says that her poor health put her out of a job and then her home, and that she’s only stayed at the hotel all this time because she was unable to find a place to rent.
“I had no vision of staying for nine and a half years,” Ganjian told Milwaukee TV station WISN, “but with no family, no longer with a home, the hotel became home and the staff became family.” The Journal Times of Racine quoted her as saying that she’s disabled by a disease similar to lupus and “If I could be working, this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.”

Ganjian reportedly has been paying $89 a day, with the help of Social Security disability benefits, to stay at the Racine Marriott in Mount Pleasant, but the hotel sought to evict her after she filed for bankruptcy in August. Ganjian said that although she reached the highest level under Marriott’s rewards points program, she wasn’t allowed to apply those points to her stay. A judge ruled last week that Ganjian must leave the hotel by Oct. 24.
The Associated Press said that it was unclear how Ganjian managed to stay long enough to accrue such a large bill at the hotel, and that the hotel’s general manager, Brian Wismar, declined to discuss Ganjian’s situation, as a matter of customer privacy. As seen in the video above, Ganjian’s attorney (pictured) says it’s also unclear where his client will go after she must leave the Marriott.