Eustis woman marks 94th birthday after release from jail — she had resisted eviction
Juanita Fitzgerald was spared having to spend her 94th birthday in the Lake County jail when she was released Thursday after having been locked up for two days in the medical ward.
The trouble started when Fitzgerald was evicted Tuesday from the senior housing community at the National Church Residences’ Franklin House in Eustis. Police said she was given notice of her eviction the day before, but she refused to leave the lobby.
“Unless you carry me out of here, I’m not going anywhere,” she told police before being arrested Tuesday morning, the report shows.
Lake County sheriff’s spokesman Fred Jones said a deputy on the scene tried to connect Fitzgerald with family members and other housing resources, but she refused. He added that she also rejected an offer of a place to stay from a nurse who was there.
Eustis police showed up shortly after the eviction notice was served. Spokesman Jim
Franquiz said officers offered several options to find housing for her elsewhere, but Fitzgerald did not want to move.
On Thursday, Fitzgerald was released from jail by a judge on her own recognizance and was being turned over to a caregiver, Lake County Sheriff’s Office spokesman John Herrell said.
Fitzgerald, whose birthday is today, is facing charges of trespassing after a warning, Lake County authorities said.
A spokeswoman with Franklin House, Karen Twinem, said the independent living community followed protocol in the weeks leading up to her arrest. Franklin House has 46 residents.
It’s part of National Church Residences, a religious housing nonprofit based in Ohio.
“Juanita lived in an independent living community, and our action was based on our overriding concern for her own safety,” Twinem said in a statement.
She added that the residence “spent months working with Juanita, collaborating with other agencies in the area and presenting her with safe housing options.” Twinem did not specify why Fitzgerald was being evicted.
“Now that this matter is in the courts [as a trespassing case], it is our hope that it will be resolved quickly for her health and wellness,” Twinem said.
B.E. Thompson, a board member with the Mid Florida Homeless Coalition, said the agency was one of several involved in helping Fitzgerald.
Thompson said Fitzgerald was in the process of renewing her lease with Franklin House, but there were changes in the contract that she didn’t agree with, though he did not specify the details.
The eviction case against Fitzgerald was filed Nov. 7, and Thompson said the trial was over before she received legal services.
“I think obviously we’re all disappointed that the result so far is an incarcerated almost-94-year-old as a result of an eviction,” Thompson.
Fitzgerald has been in regular communication with one particular person through the eviction process — a staff member at Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office. She is on a first-name basis with Chris Provenzano, a senior consumer services analyst for the office.
He said he has known her since December 2014, and she calls regularly. He said Fitzgerald is “very opinionated” but always level-headed and direct.
Provenzano said Fitzgerald first started worrying about being evicted from her apartment in late summer after she had a conversation with the property manager, who Fitzgerald alleged was “holding up a closed fist.”
Fitzgerald received help from the Florida Blind Services Division, Provenzano said, which helped her read through legal documents and forms with the government agencies. She said she was having trouble reading the paperwork, although she is not blind.
“I had a referral for everything,” said Provenzano, who added that he had connected her to at least six agencies, including the Mid Florida Homeless Coalition. “She would not give us any information about her family; she did not want to get her family involved.”
Provenzano said that during one of her calls in late October, she told him she went to the management company and “personally offered her rent.” She said the property manager refused it.
“She kept stating that everything she tried ... they kept running her around in circles,” Provenzano said. bpadro@orlando sentinel.com or 407-232-0202