NATCHEZ – Being left homeless once was bad enough. Twice was a slap in the face.

The short-term residents of the Comfort Inn packed their scarce belongings, their children and elderly and their pet fish Thursday after being told they could no longer stay at the D’Evereux Drive motel on FEMA’s bill.

The motel manager has chosen not to participate in the government’s 30-day lodging program anymore.

“What can we do but go?” Doreatha Gaines said. “We don’t have funds to pay him on a daily basis. We’ve been to practically every hotel in this city and none have room.”

Gaines and her husband were one of close to 20 families leaving the motel Thursday. Some didn’t know where they were headed; most were going back to the Red Cross shelter at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

Manager Eric Patel said he expects more to leave by the end of the weekend.

Patel participated the original 14-day FEMA program, allowing Katrina evacuees to stay for free. Once Patel sends in the paperwork he will be reimbursed for those rooms by FEMA.

But this week he opted no longer to participate in the program because of noise and destruction problems he said he’s had with the evacuees.

“A lot of things have gone wrong,” he said. “Cussing, noise, blankets missing.”

Because the evacuees are not paying for their rooms, there is no way for Patel to hold them responsible for damage like he normally would.

It’s simply become a matter of losing money, he said. He has also not received word on when FEMA reimbursement will come.

“Either way it was a hard decision to make,” he said. “I don’t want to do this.”

And the evacuees don’t want to leave either.

“I really don’t know where I’m going to go,” Lillie Buncnar said. “I don’t feel it’s right. I don’t have a ride to go and I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“We were told our time was up today,” Sylvia Williams said. “We are going back to the shelter at New Hope, where we’ve been sleeping on pews.”

Many of the Comfort Inn residents haven’t been in the motel for 14 days. Patel started counting the 14 days on the first day of the program, meaning anyone who signed in on the days after that received 13, 12, 11 days correspondingly.

The Mississippi Attorney General’s office has said hotels cannot kick evacuees out to make room for previously made reservations, which Patel is not doing.

Hotels are not required to participate in the FEMA program. Patel contacted Corporate Lodging before making his decision and said he was told he did not have to participate.

Any evacuee who can pay with credit card or cash can stay at the motel.