It's true. Believe it or not, the hotel is still in business, and from what I gathered from talking with one of Helfin's heirs, it may never have been officially closed. He described it as being used for migrant workers, "who wanted a place to stay the night for less than $15". Given it's condition, even that would seem like a little high to me. I can easily believe the horror stories told by Mike and others from visits from before I was even on this earth. Deterioration is an understatement for this place.
Also, when I passed by there last month, it appeared that some of the junk has been hauled away from my previous visits. I think their goal (Extremely long term, if ever) is to fix it up, but, at the current pace, I think we'll all be staying elsewhere for the forseeable future on visits to NG country.