‘I just feel like a failure.’ An emotional day in court during SC’s eviction crisis
Sporting a set of blue scrubs, Tonez Wilson fidgeted in his seat as he waited for his name to be called. The 23-year-old was set to graduate from his nursing program in a week and should have been in class that morning. Instead he was at the Richland County Central Court in Dentsville, fighting to not be evicted from his apartment.
In the past two months he had racked up $1,417.80 in back rent. Now, after four years of renting with the same company, the landlord wanted him out.
Wilson is one of ten tenants who passed through Magistrate Judge Phillip F. Newsom’s courtroom on Wednesday, Oct. 27, and one of countless others nationwide who face the possibility of losing their housing.
Tenants who fell on hard times at the start of the pandemic were temporarily shielded from eviction by a federal moratorium. Those protections ran out in August, but many are still struggling to get back on their feet.
Even before COVID-19, South Carolina had the highest eviction rate of any state in the country, according to research from Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
Sue Berkowitz, executive director of the S.C. Appleseed Justice Center, said despite the far reaching consequences of evictions, it is one of the most overlooked issues in the state.
“A lack of stable affordable housing in South Carolina, along with laws that make it fairly easy to evict, has led to a crisis. And there’s no reason to think things won’t be as bad or even worse with this pandemic.”
Under South Carolina law, landlords can evict a tenant if they fail to pay rent within five days of the due date or if they violate the terms of their lease. That includes staying past the end date on the lease.
Landlords — many of whom have spent months waiting to collect rent because of the moratorium — say filing for eviction is often the only tool they have to help recoup their losses.
The State spent a day in magistrate court observing eviction hearings and interviewing tenants to put a face to the problem advocates have long warned about.
Some of those threatened with eviction had fallen behind on rent because they lost their jobs, had their pay cut or faced a medical emergency. Others simply misunderstood the terms of their lease.
Eight of the tenants were people of color. One was not fluent in English and needed a translator. None of them had a lawyer. All of them were hoping to stay in their homes, or at least buy some time before they had to go.
The information in this story came from both court testimony and interviews with The State.
Twelve days to make two months rent
The reason Wilson started nursing school in the first place was to make more money. But eventually balancing school and work became untenable, and he was let go from his job as a transporter at Prisma Health due to scheduling conflicts.
Though he works part time at a senior living facility on the weekends, that job doesn’t pay enough to cover his rent and so he fell short in August and September. He applied for help through Richland County’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program but was still waiting to hear back when he found an eviction notice taped to his door a few weeks ago.
“I guess I was kind of expecting it, but I wasn’t expecting it so soon,” he said.
When Judge Newsom asked how he planned to come up with the $1,480.70, Wilson assured him that he had been accepted into the program, his rental assistance check was on the way and he had a job lined up for after graduation.
“We try to help our tenants out when we can,” his landlord, Will Fowler, said.
The judge granted Wilson twelve days to pay off the debt.
Wilson was thankful for the second chance, but knew there was no guarantee that the rent assistance would arrive in time. Without that check, he’d have no choice but to move.
But Wilson was trying not to focus on that. Instead his mind was on his graduation. If all goes as planned, he will earn his Practical Nursing Diploma from ECPI University. From there he hopes to get an associate degree and become a Registered Nurse.
“At this point, all I can do is wait,” he said.
Bad Timing
“You can raise your left hand since you clearly can’t raise your right.” Judge Newsom told Lisa Belton.
When she appeared before him that Wednesday she was recovering from a recent surgery and had her right arm in a sling. The more than $3,000 she paid in medical bills caused her to be late on rent in September.
Belton and her landlord, Cornie J. Davis, had a tense relationship. She told the judge he skimped on necessary repairs. He claimed she never had the rent on time.
Still whenever she had been late in the past, she said he was usually lenient so long as she paid a penalty. This time was different.
“I’m fed up,” Davis told the judge. “I try to be nice but every time I’m nice people walk all over me.”
Belton and her husband had been searching for a new place to live for the past year but had come up empty-handed. Now they would have to scramble at the last minute to find something.
“It just feels like bad luck, bad timing,” she said. While she watched friends and family struggle to get through 2020, she had been able to hold on to her job and tough it out. “Now after all that things are falling apart just as we were getting ready to go.”
The judge gave her until Nov. 3 to move out. Now she said she has to figure out how to pack up her whole house with just one arm.
No more moratorium
Eight months. That’s how long it’s been since Lisa Holmes has paid her rent in full.
The problem started in February when she was switched from a sales position at her company to a different job. The money she made from commissions usually helped her get over the hump each month.
Short on cash, she tried to find ways to cut back but realized no matter how many pennies she pinched, she wasn’t going to make rent.
Then, she stumbled on what she thought would be her saving grace: the Center for Disease Control’s eviction moratorium.
“I just signed this form and submitted it to my landlord and it halted any evictions.” she said.
She hoped the moratorium would buy her some time to get switched back to her old sales job. But as the months went by, nothing changed at work and the bills continued to pile up. By April, she was fired for taking too many sick days.
Then in August the moment she had been dreading finally arrived. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the eviction moratorium for good. Within a matter of months she received the eviction notice that she thought she’d be able to avoid. By that point she owed more than $8,300.
The judge explained that she had until Nov. 3 to pay off her debt and until Nov. 5 to pay $1,200 for that month’s rent.
Though she applied for Richland County’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program in August, she is still waiting to get approved.
Holmes said she knows she won’t have the money in time, but she’s hoping that if she can at least show her landlord a letter of approval from the rent assistance program, then he’ll agree to work with her.
“COVID was already stressful enough as it was but this just added a whole other layer on to it,” she said
Forced out with nowhere to go
When Heather Griffith received the notice stating that her lease would not be renewed and she had until the end of the month to leave, she couldn’t believe it.
She and her 14-year-old son had lived at the same mobile home park for the past 9 years. At $400 a month, it was the only two-bedroom she could afford.
Though she’d been threatened with eviction several times before for missing rent, “we were always able to work something out,” she said. “We never even made it to court before.”
She was confident it would be the same this time. But as the hearing drew closer, reality began to sink in.
When she finally appeared before the judge, Griffith didn’t know what to expect.
“Can you tell me why you haven’t moved even though your lease is up?” he asked.
Griffith told him she had nowhere to go and thought she could fight the decision in court. Her voice began to trail off as she choked back tears.
“Unfortunately the law doesn’t support you doing that.” Judge Newsom said, noting that her landlord could actually sue her for damages. “I have to issue the writ, I have no choice.”
He gave her until Nov. 3 to move.
Heather wasn’t sentimental about leaving the mobile home park. She had dreamed of getting out of there for years. But with poor credit and an eviction on her record, she knew finding a new place in a week would be close to impossible.
“I just feel like a failure,” she said.
Editor’s Note: The State reached out to Richland County to ask about Wilson and Holmes’ rent assistance applications. A spokesperson said the county could not discuss individual cases, but that it typically takes four to six weeks for an application to be approved, and another 21 working days for the payment to be made. The county said other factors can result in delays for approval or payment.
