Finances depleted, families uprooted
“I can’t take the one thing out of his life that has been consistent,” she said. “When we move, I’ll change schools next year.
“I’m so dying to get out.” home.
Johnson said she had begun to receive SSI benefits, and her new landlord dropped the rent from $1,100 to $900.
Johnson said she believes the family is done moving for now. On a recent afternoon, she continued unpacking containers that had been in storage as a yellow school bus dropped off her three youngest kids from school.
She found a Roget’s Thesaurus in one of the containers, and her 10-year-old son, Aaron, lit up — he said he’s working to improve his vocabulary.
As Johnson made after-school snacks, Aaron said he’s already getting used to the new house. Still, he thinks back before all the moving — including stays in shelters and a night in a park — when they lived in a nice place in Northeast Baltimore.
“That’s where I have the most memories,” he said. no lawyer and no legal training, he learned his rights and decided to fight the landlord, Tiffany Management.
Ten properties owned by Tiffany have accumulated nearly two dozen housing code citations at 10 properties. One mother with a young child told The Sun that she had to heat her house with stovetop burners.
Those citations have resulted in $9,615 in outstanding fines and late fees, according to city data. Only $300 has been recorded as being paid.
Attempts to reach Adrienne Hollimon, listed in court records as the sole proprietor of Tiffany Management LLC, were unsuccessful.
Messages left at three telephone numbers listed in court records were not returned. A Sun reporter who visited her office twice during office hours found the door locked both times.
A Tiffany representative who appeared at court, Lisa Hines, and a former employee, Lawrence Whitter, could not put The Sun in touch with Hollimon. No one appeared for the company at the last two court hearings in the Jones case.
Hollimon filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in federal court in March. A judge dismissed the case this month after determining that she had not filed all the required paperwork.
Hollimon purchased the homes for an average price of $38,000, property records show. All but one were sold by the Department of Housing and Urban Development or Freddie Mac.
Hollimon may have met her match in Marvin.
“I’m not giving up,” he said. “I’m tired of moving.”
In December 2015, Marvin Jones filed a complaint alleging that there was no heat in the rowhouse, flaking and peeling lead paint accessible to a child, a broken bathroom sink, and exposed, leaking pipes.
He asked for his rent to be reduced to $200 and that the court award him damages of $7,600 because, he said, Tiffany had violated its obligation to provide a habitable home.
A city housing inspector found nine code violations. The inspector reported that “proper heating equipment is lacking,” there was no hot water, and there was a defective toilet, ceiling, faucet and wall.
Judge Nicole Pastore Klein opened an escrow account. Denise and Marvin could pay rent into that account until Tiffany corrected the problems. But Klein also told the couple to pay the full $950 rent, or she would dismiss the case.
Heat-related violations are supposed to be expedited. But the judge gave Tiffany until mid-February before the next inspection.
At the next hearing, the repairs still had not been made. The court gave the landlord until late March to fix the furnace and other problems.
In April, as winter drew to an end, Judge Mark Scurti found that the work was still not completed. And messy repairs had exposed Denise Jones, who has congestive heart failure, to “dust and debris” that sent her to the hospital.
Scurti let the family live rent-free for May and June.
In May, two days before the next hearing, Marvin Jones called police and alleged that property manager Lawrence Whitter had illegally locked the family out.
Whitter declined to comment to The Sun, except to say he no longer works for Hollimon. Jones told Scurti about the lockout. The judge chastised Hines for arriving unprepared to explain why the locks were changed and the Joneses’ possessions were tossed in the alley.
Hines said Tiffany had assumed the family had moved out.
If they had moved out, Scurti asked, why were all their belongings still inside? He then awarded the couple the full amount of rent that they had paid into escrow: $4,750.
He also ordered Tiffany to pay $3,050 in damages to the couple for the belongings that were pilfered.
Tiffany Management immediately appealed the decision and filed a lawsuit claiming that the Joneses had caused $12,000 in damages to the apartment. That lawsuit was dismissed in July.
Today, Denise and Marvin have settled in a new apartment on Wabash Avenue. They still need more furniture and clothes. But the heat and the appliances all work.
Still, they could really use that $3,050. Tiffany Management has still not paid them. “It’s just a struggle,” Denise said. “We can’t really do anything.”
Except, Marvin adds, keep fighting in court. Denise nods. She said she prays for her landlord, unable to understand why he would treat his tenants like that.
“We were good tenants. Always paid on time,” she says. “For the things that Mr. Larry does to some people, he should have to pay.”
On Oct. 13, Denise said, her prayers were answered.
Marvin arrived early at the Circuit Court building on Calvert Street that Thursday morning dressed in blue sweatpants and a stained hooded sweatshirt. On the cellphone, Denise told him to try to delay the trial to get a lawyer. She said she was worried Marvin was out of his depth.
Like most tenants, they had navigated the entire process without a lawyer. But the couple was nervous that they could lose everything on appeal.
But when the case was called in the cavernous fifth-floor courtroom of Judge Alfred Nance, Marvin was the only party present. He took a seat at a table before Nance.
Nance called out “Tiffany Management” several times. No answer. As bells tolled 10 a.m. outside, Nance affirmed Scurti’s decision to award Jones $3,050 in damages.
Outside the courtroom, Marvin called Denise. “We won,” he told her.
“Thank the Lord,” she said. “God answered our prayers.”
“I just hope the money comes before Christmas,” Marvin said. It didn’t. The couple has been to court twice this year, but the landlord never showed. Marvin and Denise are still waiting for their $3,050. They say they are barely making ends meet on their $1,050 income, and worry they might have to move again.
“It’s been a whole year and we still ain’t got nothing,” Marvin Jones said.
Their next hearing is May 25. It’s the last step before a judge can declare the landlord in contempt of the court’s order to pay.
The couple will be representing themselves.
Marvin Jones said the family is pleased with their new apartment complex. But he’s still angry that the children lost so many belongings, and that the family remains split.
After the eviction and a brief stint in a city shelter, their daughter and granddaughter moved to North Carolina. They haven’t returned.
“We just haven’t come to par to get the kids back what they had or to give them what they need to keep going forward,” he said.