[PeoplesPotluck] Duplex condemned; Mother and Son soon to be homeless

Thu Sep 3 11:00:20 CDT 2009

The answers to your questions are:

Is this legal?   
Yes, the city can and does condemn places and orders the tenants to move out.

Is there something the tenants can do to avoid eviction? 
There is nothing they can do to avoid it but they could delay it by refusing to leave and forcing the city to sue them for eviction.  I advise against that strategy because it would result in a court judgment against the tenant and that goes on her credit record.  However, if having until Monday or Tuesday would make a difference, she should tell the city inspector she can't move tomorrow because she has nowhere to go and needs a few more days.   They cannot legally use force to eject her.  They have to have a court order (but they could get one very quickly if they file tomorrow).

Is the city legally obligated to assist them in some way?
NO.   The city has no legal obligation.   The LANDLORD owes them the balance of this month's rent if they've already paid for a current period, refund of deposit and any other pre-paid rent and their cost for relocating which includes renting the moving van (or hiring movers), reconnection of utility costs, and (this next part gets sticky so one has to be careful) the difference in rent between this place and a COMPARABLE rental unit.  The word comparable is very important.  I have a client right now who moved out of a condemned efficiency apartment to a 2 bedroom and there's no way she'll get the difference in rent because she clearly upgraded her living circumstances.  Likewise, if this woman and her son are living in a Bernard Ramos slum and move to Baytowne, they won't ever be able to collect the difference in rent.  But, if a comparable place that could reasonably be argued to be comparable costs $45 per month more for example) and she can't find something cheaper that is in the same neighborhood or whatever, then in theory, the landlord owes her compensation in the amount of her increased rental costs until the end date of the lease she had with the landlord.  (If the lease was month to month or there was "no lease," she would only be entitled to the difference in rent compensation for one month).

If the landlord in this case IS Bernard or Eduardo Ramos, she's probably not going to be able to collect because one or both of them filed for bankruptcy.  She'll probably even lose her damage deposit.  But if it's any landlord who has not filed for bankruptcy, she's got a chance.

This is a perfect example of how city government could help victims of condemnation without busting the budget.  It's only 2 families!   I've attended a couple of meetings with city officials to discuss tenant relocation but it is quite clear that the purpose of these meetings is to come up with every way that social service agencies, withOUT the help of local governments, can address the problem.  Then the cities refer the victims of condemnations to the agencies and consider themselves to have fulfilled their obligation.   It makes me sick.  Social service agencies are getting their budgets slashed and both cities are in a much better position to pay the cost of helping the victims of condemnations than social service agencies.

The best suggestions I can make for helping these folks today are:

1.  Find some place that they can store their personal property so they don't lose it all while living in some temporary situation.  Even if it means pitching in to pay for the cost of a mini-warehouse for them, that's vital.  I'd be willing to contribute $50 toward that effort, Laurie, if you can give them the money and then tell me to whom I should write the check and where I can send it.   Losing furniture or other personal items is a very costly side effect of untimely eviction.

2.  She should call Regional Planning Commission at 217-384-1226 to ask for rental assistance.  They might be out of money but if not, they have a program for helping with first month's rent (and sometimes, for cases like this, damage deposit) to prevent families from becoming homeless.  

3.  She can try calling other places for financial help, if that's the primary concern; First Call for Help at Family Service, Empty Tomb, Salvation Army are all possibilities for financial help and Salvation Army might have a shelter option.   Try  Center for Women in Transition at 217-352-7151.  Depending on the son's age, they might be able to take them in (if the CWIT shelters aren't already full) and if not, they might be able to give some referral I didn't think of or might have some arrangement with another agency for special cases when they fill up   

4.  Depending on how much money it is, if this is only one or two families, how about raising the funds from the people on this list?  I can help if that's what we're going to try to do.

5.  I don't know if this will help, but these are the cheapest 1 and 2 bedroom apartments that have been advertised this week that are NOT owned by landlords who I know to be terrible:

One bedroom at 512 W. White, Champaign $400.  217-356-9677

One bedroom at 609 W. Springfield, Champaign $435.  217-493-1991

Two bedroom at 800 W. Church, Champaign $490.  217-352-8540

Two bedroom at 1717 E. Florida, Urbana $550.  217-384-5789.

If by any chance she has good transportation and would be willing to live in Rantoul, two bedroom townhouses at Golfview Village are only $415.  Call 217-893-1818.   A two bedroom apartment at Keystone Apartments in Rantoul is only $450 (call Green Street Realty at 217-356-8750).

Finally, this is  not her top priority, but if you have any kind of relationship with this woman, please try to get her to communicate to the Champaign City Council members her story and the importance of the City providing relocation assistance to people displaced by condemnation.  Or, she could call Channel 3 or Channel 15 to try to get her story on TV. 

Esther Patt

Champaign-Urbana Tenant Union

Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 08:48:24 -0500
From: laurie.nobilette at gmail.com
To: jandurl at comcast.net; chyn at ojctech.com; clwetzel at hotmail.com; dmathew at mailaps.org; lennybrucefan at gmail.com; enslin.mark at gmail.com; ccuthbertson at yahoo.com; lewart3 at gmail.com; laureie.nobilette at gmail.com; slevy at new.math.uiuc.edu; dan at sourcegear.com; jlolo1945 at gmail.com; kennybishop at gmail.com; sehvilla at gmail.com; drleez at illinois.edu; discuss at communitycourtwatch.org; rachelstrm at gmail.com; song16 at illinois.edu; shrnirish at yahoo.com; sachdev3 at illinois.edu; jennifer.s.carrera at gmail.com; cindymann at gmail.com; sfrohar2 at illinois.edu; allen16 at illinois.edu; cdrosa at gmail.com; lserb at uigeo.org; amira_davis at yahoo.com; abbilyn at gmail.com; ucprogressives at lists.ucimc.org; javadi1 at illinois.edu; peoplespotluck at lists.chambana.net; smondaydorsey at yahoo.com; leighe at gmail.com; kreutze1 at illinois.edu; sara.kammlade at gmail.com; actionbehold at gmail.com; tylerschen at gmail.com; briandolinar at gmail.com; a-fields at uiuc.edu; ryanmcclure2 at gmail.com
Subject: [PeoplesPotluck] Duplex condemned; Mother and Son soon to be homeless

Hello All, 

Tuesday a woman called the worker house trying to find a place for her and her son who are facing eviction. This Friday, the City of Champaign will condemn the duplex she and her son live, along with another tenant. The landlord did not keep the building up to code but did not inform the tenants of these problems. The same landlord owns other properties in town, some of which are being foreclosed on. The woman I talked to said she explained to the city that she had no where else to go, but their response was that relocating tenants wasn't their job. 

So I have a few questions:

Is this legal? 
Is there something the tenants can do to avoid eviction? 
Is the city legally obligated to assist them in some way?
I plan on going there Friday morning...would anyone else like to meet at this property (410 Church St, Ch) Friday morning to help and support these tenants? 

If anyone has any advice to offer, send it this way! Or, if you want to meet Friday, you can let me know or just show up!

Thanks, 

Laurel Nobilette
Catholic Worker House

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