Government and Hotel Monopoly to Blame for Six Killed in Upstate NY Motel Fire

Three children and three adults were killed and over 70 displaced in a fire at the Knights Inn motel in Endwell, NY on the morning of June 22.

Those killed were Michelle D. Woolfolk, 58, and a family of five: Joshuea Molyneaux, 39; Dominique Molyneaux, 27; Ella N. Cruz-Molyneaux, 3; Romyn J. Cruz-Molyneaux, 2; and Zachariah Cruz-Molyneaux, 10 months old. Police report they died of smoke inhalation.

Joshuea was an experienced construction worker who struggled with homelessness. He and Dominique were married and all children were theirs. Michelle, known to loved ones as “Auntie Michelle”, was placed in the motel by the Department of Social Services (DSS) after suffering from a stroke and being immobilized.

Government and Monopolies Collude

DSS uses motels like The Knights Inn as an “emergency shelter” for homeless people to move into. As motels face declining profitability from decreasing demand, owners often convert parts or the entire building into shelters, which receive streams of government funding through guaranteed payments for occupied rooms. From April 2024 to March 2025 alone, the Inn received $734,374 from Broome County for shelter placement.

Knights Inn is a subsidiary of the monopoly Red Lion Hotels Corporation, itself a subsidiary of Sonesta International Hotels. The monopoly is the eighth largest hotel company in the US and operates over 1,200 properties across eight countries with an annual revenue of $1.4 billion, according to ZoomInfo.

Unlike regular motels, poor conditions do not reduce demand when homelessness keeps rooms occupied and government funding keeps revenue flowing. Despite reported violations at the Inn, the county had renewed the contract with the motel as a shelter. Former residents and those familiar with the Inn reported to The Worker that cleanliness was poor and anti-fire safety measures were absent. Due to the lack of kitchens in the rooms, families had to rely on using appliances like microwaves, skillets, and grills in confined spaces, which posed a fire hazard.

A community organizer who conducted regular food distribution at the Knights Inn told The Worker that “there’s smoke detectors in some rooms, and most of them don’t work and don’t have batteries. There’s no sprinklers in any of the rooms,” adding, “some of the windows are screwed shut randomly, some of the windows are broken. It’s not easy to exit the rooms.”

According to the organizer, “[DSS hides homeless people] in these other, smaller, motels. Just because you didn’t happen to see [homeless sheltering] at the Knights Inn, or the Red Roof Inn, or the Hillside Inn doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s enormous. This has exploded in the last 6 years.”

A report obtained through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request by media revealed that the smoke sensor in the laundry room was non-functional, some exit signs were unlit, no heating report existed, and many rooms had no smoke alarms.

A resident who was injured in the fire told The Worker that he didn’t hear any smoke alarms go off.

A homeless worker who was a cousin of the Molyneaux family of five, a friend of Michelle, and a former resident of the Inn told The Worker that the local government has done “absolutely fucking nothing” to address her loss and homelessness. She added that there were cockroaches and bedbugs when she stayed at the Inn.

Residents Fight for Housing Demands

On June 23, homeless people with the support of activists rallied outside the Broome County Office Building. The rally turned into an encampment, whose demands included:

– Immediate declaration of a Public Health Emergency throughout Broome County
– Immediate placement of unhoused families with children in HOMES, not hotels
– Immediate rent freeze
– Immediate eviction moratorium
– An immediate ban of all encampment sweeps
– Municipal-funded repairs for housing code violations
– Survivor payouts to the victims of the Knights Inn fire
– Overall expansion of affordable public housing

In the press release formally announcing the encampment, organizers added that, “It is past the time for proposals. It is past time to ‘vote for change.’ It is past time for polite protests. And it is past time for more petitions and legislative meetings. It is time to act.”

The encampment was planned to last for a minimum of 36 hours—6 hours for each of the killed in the fire. Participants have continued the encampment since.

Democrat Opportunist Councilwoman Rebecca Rathmell and self-proclaimed “housing justice advocate” successfully pushed to enact a supposed pause on sweeps of homeless encampments in May. Yet members of the protest encampment told The Worker that at least four police sweeps of encampments have occurred since, with belongings stolen or destroyed by police.

On June 30, a notice was distributed by police at the protest encampment ordering for it to be shut down by the evening of July 1.

Rathmell made a statement on the morning of July 1, justifying the upcoming sweep by stating that the encampment is “not an encampment of unhoused individuals who have nowhere else to go” but rather solely a “protest encampment” despite the majority of its attendees being homeless, many of whom have been displaced by the fire. A leading organizer told The Worker, “This isn’t just a bunch of activists hanging out on the street. People came here because it was safer.”

As of publication, the encampment is still ongoing despite facing numerous sweeps and its participants facing repression.

Readers can donate to the memorial fund for Dominique Molyneaux and her family here, the memorial fund for Joshuea Molyneaux here, and the memorial fund for Michelle Woolfolk here.

Image: Slogans outside the Broome County Office Building. Credit: The Worker.

---

The Worker is an entirely volunteer-run revolutionary newspaper free from and radically antagonistic to corporate influence. We rely on the support of our readers to sustain our editorial line in service of the working class and the reconstitution of its party, the Communist Party. Make a one-time or recurring donation to our newspaper today: