CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Southern Comfort Inn is likely a place you've driven by in west Charlotte and never noticed.

But inside it’s a home to dozens of families. Many of the people who live at the inn are considered homeless. The motel moved from short-term stays to extended ones around the 2008 recession.

The guests often stay for months and many of them have families.

“On the bus the other kids would make fun of them. They would call them homeless,” said Traci Canterbury who is the inn’s general manager. “I used to see them come in here...and sit on the stairs and cry...And that's tough for a little kid and being made fun of.”

Today, those kids have formed a pact.

In November, Canterbury and her business partner, Dwayne Baker, started a free weekday after-school program inside the inn's lobby. When the schools buses arrive around 25 kids ages 2 to 18 come in.

The students, who all live at the inn, get help with homework, are given a meal and a place where they can focus on just being a kid.

“I thought it was great. I was like yes, to be honest with you,” said Larre Simms who lives at the inn with her three children.

She says while the attention is often on homeless shelters, there are many people living in other places as well.

“I hope more hotels do the same thing she is doing because there are other kids in other hotel rooms that can do the after school program to help children,” Simms said.

It gives new meaning to what it means to be a hotel and proving just because these families don't have a permanent house doesn't mean they are without a home.

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