‘I don’t know how to do this’
After months of frustration, Hammond woman faces eviction once moratorium ends
Sitting on the couch with one of her daughters snuggled up to her, Anna Rae Gilbert smiled as she discussed her artwork hanging on the walls: Paintings of friends’ daughters at the 2017 Women’s March and landmarks in Chicago, like the Wrigley Field sign.
As a professional artist, Gilbert, 42, sells her paintings at fairs and to architects to use as closing gifts. While a few of her pieces hang spread out through the living room, it’s clear what is most important to her is the cluster of 16 family photos, in mixed matched frames, of her daughters Charlie, 6, and Mica, 4, hanging above the couch.
In the corner the Hammond home she rents, she set up an art studio — complete with paintstained easel and paint brushes — which she hasn’t been able to use in the last few months because of a hand injury. She had surgery in June, and has been going to physical therapy ever since.
But June was stressful for another reason, Gilbert said, because that’s when her landlord
asked her to move out of the house through self-help eviction, which would allow her to move out of the home without being penalized and without going through the formal eviction process.
Gilbert, a single mother, didn’t want to move, because she had nowhere else to go and the COVID-19 pandemic was still raging. Plus, she had been paying rent on time and in full, she said.
“He just wants me out,” Gilbert said. “I don’t have any weapons against this. I don’t have anything in my pocket or anywhere to go.”
Gilbert said her landlord has been harassing her in recent months by sending her screenshots of companies that are hiring. Considering the pandemic and how it as affected people, Gilbert said she’s been shocked by the lack of empathy from her landlord.
Jerome Conway, the landlord, said he’s tried working with Gilbert over the last few months, and that “she’s the type of person that’s just taking advantage of the situation.”
Conway said that if Gilbert had approached him about her situation, which he said she mentioned “in passing,” and agreed to make a portion of the rent “just to show a good faith effort” he would’ve worked with her.
“I’ve been way more than fair with this gal,” Conway said. “There are a multitude of opportunities for employment, if she wanted to.”
In August, her unemployment ended because of a multistate verification issue, Gilbert said.
She and her daughters moved into the Hammond home from Chicago in February 2020 because of a family abuse investigation, which she is fighting in court.
Gilbert said she is appealing her unemployment case, which is pending. But, when her unemployment ended, so did her timely rent payments, she said.
In November, her landlord filed eviction paperwork with the courts. But, because the COVID-19 federal moratorium on evictions — which doesn’t prohibit landlords from starting the eviction process — Gilbert hasn’t had to leave the home.
The pandemic did not affect his decision to file the eviction notice, Conway said.
Once she was notified of the eviction, Gilbert said she immediately applied for rental assistance through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.
But, according to an email from IHCDA, her application was denied because her “landlord has informed our staff that they are unwilling to participate in our program at this time.” Landlords have the right to deny rental assistance, according to IHCDA.
“IHCDA does not have authority in private landlord-tenant disputes or issues outside our programs, so we would not be able to intervene regarding your landlord’s refusal to participate in the rental assistance program,” the email reads, in part.
Gilbert said she was shocked when she received the email.
“He had the opportunity to be paid in full and, going forward, indefinitely, and yet he chose to take this arduous route just to make us suffer,” Gilbert said. “I have absolutely no idea what we’re going to do.”
Conway said he declined Gilbert’s rental assistance application because it required a four-month lease extension and he wanted “to mitigate loss.”
“That would restrict me from evicting her for a four-month period. Every 60 days the moratorium has been extended multiple times, and so, basically, to mitigate my losses I was unwilling to accept the four-month addendum,” Conway said.
Gilbert’s original lease ended Feb. 1, and she had a hearing Feb. 3 for her eviction case. So, without signing a new lease, Gilbert said she had no idea what happens next and that her “biggest fear” is that the sheriff will come kick her family out of the home.
Then came the water bill situation.
On Feb. 1, Gilbert and Conway talked over the phone, and Conway said she hadn’t been paying the water bill and he paid $640 in overdue water bills for the property because she hadn’t put the bill in her name. Gilbert said she thought landlords paid the water bill, as is the case in Chicago, so she didn’t think to check on that.
Conway wanted Gilbert to put the water bill in her name, which requires a lease. They agreed to a month-to-month lease agreement to be signed in the presence of a notary.
At the Feb. 3 hearing the judge agreed to continue the case until March 31, which is when the federal eviction moratorium is set to expire.
Gilbert emotionally pleaded her case in court stating she has tried to pay and applied for rental assistance, which her landlord declined. She asked the judge if he could require that Conway accepts the rental assistance program and to ensure that the month-to-month lease they agreed to could be signed electronically.
The judge scolded Gilbert for sending evidence to the court and not to Conway’s lawyer. The judge said he did not have the authority to require the landlord to accept her rental assistance application and suggested that Gilbert meet with Conway’s lawyer to sign the month-to-month lease.
After the hearing, Gilbert, in tears, said she felt bullied in the proceeding for trying to plead her case.
“That was so demeaning,” Gilbert said. “I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never had to do it.”
Gilbert, whose father died of COVID-19 the morning of the hearing, said she was glad that the judge extended the case and that she’ll be able to sign the month-to-month lease in the lawyer’s office.
But, as soon as her unemployment case is resolved and she receives her money, Gilbert said she will move out of the home.
“I just don’t want to be in a home where I’m not wanted. I would love to end my interactions with (Conway). But, if I have to stay here until (March) 31 then so be it. I’m going to legally do what I can do,” Gilbert said.
Once the moratorium is lifted, Conway said he will process the eviction.
“As soon as I can process the eviction, it’ll be processed. I’ll take possession of property and get somebody in there that’s gainfully employed,” Conway said.