Giving Compass' Take:
- Katie Wilson reports on the threat of eviction facing many low-income tenants as affordable housing efforts face obstacles.
- What is the role of funders in making progress towards equitable access to affordable housing to ensure that low-income tenants do not face the threat of eviction and homelessness?
- Learn more about key issues in homelessness and housing and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on homelessness in your area.
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Angelique is racing against the clock to stop her eviction from Plymouth Housing’s Almquist Place. She owes $2,014 in back rent and she has until October 18th. “I just worry about being homeless,” she said, voicing her concern about the threat of eviction.
Angelique knows what that’s like. She was homeless for about five years before moving into the permanent supportive housing building when it opened in 2020. Like many of her neighbors, she struggles on and off with her mental health and with substance use. But early this year, she felt she was finally getting things together. In January, pandemic rental assistance helped to cover $3,285 in rental debt, and Angelique applied for a Housing Choice Voucher through the federal Section 8 program. She was quickly approved and looking forward to finding a new place; she just needed to pay back a few more months of rent to end the threat of eviction.
In April, Angelique signed a payment plan and handed over $265 from her monthly Social Security Disability Insurance payment of $942 — her $245 monthly rent, which amounts to 30 percent of her income, plus $20 toward the remaining debt. But then something unexpected happened. In May, June, and July, when she tried to make her payments at the beginning of each month to mitigate the threat of eviction, Plymouth turned her away. And in late June, she received a 30-day notice to pay or vacate.
With the help of her case managers, Angelique finally got a meeting with the building’s property management staff. Soon after, on August 2, she found a letter from Plymouth taped to her door, acknowledging their error. She had mistakenly been placed on a do-not-accept list, a step Plymouth told PubliCola it takes only “when it’s determined that eviction is imminent, after a resident has failed to pay rent for 3 months and failed to take resolution measures by engaging in a payment plan or another such program.”
Plymouth withdrew the eviction notice and reinstated the payment plan, but the stress of the ordeal had upset Angelique’s precarious balance.
Read the full article about the struggles of low-income tenants by Katie Wilson at PubliCola.