Holiday eviction puts family on streets
The latest pandemic CLEVES — aid package, just passedbyCongressandPresident Donald Trump, is supposed to extend the moratoriumon evictions through Jan. 31, 2021.
But many people are still facing eviction as 2020ends, forced to move out of their rentalhomeor apartmenton NewYear’sEveinsomecases.
That is not how anyone wants to spend the holidays.
Amanda Barger’s life’s belongings are on the sidewalk, outside her mobile home in Cleves.
“Every single thing is out here,” she said. “Everything from the kids’ bedrooms to the kitchen and everything. Allmy stuff’s out here, and it will either go to storage, or people will all take it.”
Thismomof four and her husbandhavebeenunable to pay rent for several months.
“Hewas sick withCOVID,” she says of her husband, “and lost his job.”
But Barger saysher mobile home park, Westbrook Village inCleves, was able to get a court order to force them out, and told us that maintenance crews removed her and her family’s possessions Tuesday morning.
WCPO read the Hamilton County court order that shows they owe $3,200 in unpaid rent and late fees over the past six months.
“I knowthis is a business, and you have to pay your ownway, but they couldhave a little kindness,” she said.
ThefederalCARESActprohibits most evictions from rentalhomes and apartment buildings. But mobilehomes fall into a category of their own, because in many cases you don’t rent the home but instead rent the land.
And land rental is not covered in the eviction moratorium, allowing park owners to force tenants out.
Experts say that’s just one of many loopholes in the pandemic aid law.
Hamilton County Clerk of Courts Aftab Pureval told WCPO’s Larry Seward that landlords filed over 200evictions in the county sinceNov. 1, and in many cases the law does not prevent landlords from forcing tenants out.
“This is not an eviction moratorium. If you are a tenant, you can still be evicted right nowfor things other than failure to pay rent,” Pureval said.
Thepandemicmoratorium specifically requires renters to be suffering pandemic-related hardship (not just out ofwork), and to be applying for government aid.
Barger’s four children are now safe at their grandmother’s house, she says, but she has no place for her two dogs.
We called the managers of the mobile homepark to ask why the Bargers can’t have more time to pay their back rent, but have yet to receive a return call.