Homeless enjoy break from reality at Hotel du Pont

Jason Searfoss is seeing a different world this weekend.

While others on Christmas Day were with family inside their cozy homes, the 41-year-old's only gift then was finding a doorway on Market Street that shielded him from the chilly wind gusts and allowed for a better night's sleep.

Sleeping on the streets of Wilmington or in shelters is Searfoss' life these days, but on Friday he got a belated Christmas gift.

Searfoss was among six guests at the Hotel du Pont in downtown Wilmington Friday as part of an overall effort to house the homeless during an exceptionally cold week in Delaware.

By 5 p.m., Searfoss and the other guests were seated at a table in a private dining room in the hotel where they enjoyed fare that some of them only dreamed of.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime. A lot of us have to do a lot of walking around, going from place to place," he said. "Just to be in one spot for the weekend and have all your facilities taken care of, it's unspeakable.

"I don't know what more to say. I'm totally flabbergasted."

Searfoss is part of a group close to Newark-area resident Deborah Bennett when she was formerly homeless herself. Last month, Bennett talked with Matthew Scott Senge, the founder of Road to Redemption Ministries, about putting the group at an inexpensive hotel south of Wilmington for Christmas night.

"I got to thinking about it and said, 'What kind of message are we sending? Are we sending a message that says, 'that $30 motel room where prostitutes go, where the drug dealers are, where the crime runs rampant,'" Senge said. "Are we sending the message that that's all they're worth? And I said, 'let's call the Hotel du Pont, and let them feel special, even if it's for a day."

Senge reserved a room for $639, but the hotel refused to give the homeless people the room just before check-in.

The Hotel du Pont's decision received considerable backlash on social media this week after the story about the room refusal broke.

The hotel on Thursday reversed course and offered to provide each of the guests separate rooms free of charge until noon Sunday.

"Somebody asked me, 'Matt, how do you feel about their (hotel's) motives?'" Senge said. "It doesn't matter. I don't care what their motives are at this point. The fact is we got six people off the street when it's been the coldest it's ever been (this season) and that's all that matters. That was the whole objective. They did step up, and I appreciate it."

The Hotel du Pont has since issued an apology for its initial refusal.

"We apologize for the misunderstanding regarding a hotel reservation under Mr. Senge's name, which was canceled on Dec. 25," Lisa Bolten, the hotel's director of hospitality, said in a statement. "Respect is a core value of the hotel. That extends to everyone, including the homeless."

Bolten also mentioned DuPont's history of donating to charities.

When the News Journal first spoke with the hotel about the refused room, a representative said it refused the guests under the standard hospitality operating practice of requiring photo identification at check-in. The representative said Senge told management, when making the reservation, that the homeless people they intended to house did not have IDs.

But Senge said the hotel's real reason for refusing the guests was because it feared the homeless people would rob or attack other guests.

"I guess we got to be homeless to rape or rob somebody," he said.

Often, a decent day for Searfoss and the others can simply be finding a spot where the wind and other weather conditions don't bother them too much.

"When we walk around town, we pick and scope out little places that we know we can go, little nooks and crannies," Searfoss said. "For the most part, we basically just try to get out of the elements and out of the wind."

This weekend, they're enjoying comfy and spacious beds, TV and perhaps most importantly peace, among other things. Their meal Friday night include warm tomato soup, turkey breast, various greens and salads and a dessert that included brownies, cupcakes and a cake topped with whipped cream and cherries.

Dave Hyland, 35, who has been homeless on and off for about three years, usually spends his days and nights under the Interstate 95 bridge near the Browntown neighborhood in Wilmington. He said he's spent so much of his days outside that the cold doesn't bother him as much anymore.

"I've been outside in colder than this before," Hyland said. "I'm sure everybody else here has, too."

But Hyland said a break from the normal routine is nice sometimes.

"It's a nice thing that they did," Hyland said about the Hotel du Pont. "I don't know why they did it, but it's good, very nice."

Contact Yann Ranaivo at (302) 324-2837, yranaivo@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @YannRanaivo.