In March, Madeline Lofland lost her job as a nanny as a result of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite that, he paid with his savings and for seven more months the rent of his one-bedroom apartment in Harris County, the most populous in Houston.
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When the savings dried up, she gave her landlord the form with the order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that – she thought – I would protect her from an eviction.
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“Everything in that CDC order applied in my case. I have tried to make partial payments. I paid my rent for seven months after I lost my job “, Lofland said to the Houston Public Radio.
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But her landlord did not care about the role: she filed an eviction lawsuit to get her out of the house, as has happened with 24,335 cases of Houstonians who have joined, despite the moratorium declared by the CDC, according to records from the Eviction Lab organization, which has generated a count in more than twenty cities in Texas, Massachusetts, Connecticut, South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Pennsylvania, New York, Minnesota, Indiana and Ohio.
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Lofland says that when he received the first order from the judge, he almost left his house “because he did not know what to do.” It was then that he contacted one of the five organizations that are representing tenants in these cases as part of the Harris County Eviction Defense Coalition.
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“This situation was beyond me, it was more than I had ever experienced,” the 23-year-old told the radio.
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Thus, supported by a lawyer, she appeared in court in front of County Judge Jeff Williams. The audience began with him asking him questions about the CDC moratorium and probing things like: “You really don’t have anywhere to go? Why don’t you go live with your parents? How many rooms does your parents’ house have?”
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Lofland says he burst into tears: “I felt like, ‘ok, I’ll live in my car then.’ After these questions the judge decided: “It seemed that the judge did not care about anything that I or my lawyer had to say,” he explains. Minutes earlier, her lawyer had explained to the magistrate that she had nowhere to go and the judge, in response, threatened to punish him for contempt.
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According to Public Radio reporters who have attended other hearings of Judge Williams, the above threat has been repeated on other occasions. In a hearing that had been by telephone, after the eviction order, the affected woman asked if there was not a moratorium from the CDC. In response, the magistrate disconnected the call. On one more occasion, they claim that the judge said the order was unconstitutional.
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In Lofland’s case, the decision was eviction, but she appealed the case and waits for the opinion of another judge.
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When the CDC issued the order to moratorium on evictions they did so to prevent the affected people – who number in the millions – from being left without homes and having to go to the streets or to temporary shelters where the spread of the disease can be faster. The latest extension protects all Americans from being evicted until March 31. Despite this measure, tens of hundreds of landlords across the country continue to force their tenants to leave their properties if they do not receive their rent.
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Tenants who hoped to be eligible for this protection could access this help in several ways: demonstrate an income of $ 198,000 per year or less for couples filing jointly, as well as for singles who prove income of $ 99,000. Also for those who had sought help from the government to pay their rent or who could prove that they would be homeless if evicted.
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