Even with DeSantis’ moratorium in place, Floridians face evictions: ‘I was a good tenant. I deserved mercy.’

By CAROLINE GLENN ORLANDO SENTINEL | MAY 26, 2020 | 12:59 PM

For months, many of Florida’s renters have been living on borrowed time, unable to pay their landlords and nervously awaiting evictions that could resume as soon as June 3.

Since Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered an eviction moratorium April 2, tenants who can’t afford to pay rent because of layoffs and business closures during the coronavirus pandemic have been protected, with courts unable to proceed with hearings.

There is a chance DeSantis could again extend the moratorium, but there’s been no indication yet if that will happen. Without a uniform plan to help residents catch up on overdue rent payments, and with some workers still waiting for state unemployment to come through, a longer moratorium could just delay the inevitable.

Even with the moratorium in place, some landlords have tried to oust tenants, with 80 eviction cases filed and pending in Orange County alone, the court clerk’s website shows. Tenants have been stunned to find three-day notices stuffed in their mailboxes or taped to the front door, but legally, it’s allowed, said Cody McCloud, a DeSantis spokesman.

The governor’s order only prevents evictions from being processed by the courts, the last step needed to issue tenants with what’s known as a “writ of possession.” After that, tenants have 24 hours to move out and hand over the keys.

Vanessa Keverenge, a community organizer for Organize Florida, an advocacy group for low-income residents, said 677 Orange County residents in danger of being kicked out of their homes have reached out to the organization for help so far. Organizations like the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Florida Bar Association that provide free legal services have also reported a spike in eviction-related calls.

“When this eviction moratorium is over, what do people do?” asked Sharona Barnes, a community leader with Organize Florida. “People are very scared."

Struggling with rent

Carolina Rojas, who for the past two years has rented a four-bedroom house in Kissimmee with her 15-year-old son, 11-year-old daughter and her nephew, said her landlord wouldn’t work with her on the rent, a $1,950 bill that became impossible when she stopped getting shifts as a banquet server. She’s moving to a new house in Kissimmee on Wednesday.

Rojas said she’s applied for dozens of new jobs, but the companies that contacted her said they wouldn’t be conducting interviews till June, too late for Rojas to be able to pay her landlord.

She applied for unemployment March 13, but like hundreds of thousands of other workers who have wrangled with Florida’s failing system, the process took weeks, and it was April 10 by the time Rojas got anything. After her benefits came in, Rojas said she paid her landlord all that she could for April’s rent, about $1,000.

“She started to ask, ‘When are you going to pay, when are you going to pay, when are you going to pay?' I said, ‘I already paid you half the rent, give me a break,'" Rojas said in Spanish.

“I was a good tenant. I deserved mercy,” Rojas said.

But Rojas said the landlord continued to ask for the unpaid rent. The two agreed Rojas and her children would move out before the lease expired May 31, and to cover May’s rent, Rojas forfeited the security deposit.

Paying for the new rental cost two month’s rent upfront, about $3,000, everything Rojas said she’d saved of her $247 weekly unemployment checks and stimulus check. She said she hasn’t received the federal unemployment payments yet. Her church has been helping her get food and she’s applied for food stamps.

Her landlord did not respond to a request for comment.

Mass evictions may come

Jamos “Jay” Mobley, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, fears that come June 3, the region may see mass evictions. Many of the residents who have reached out to him have already gotten “reminder letters” threatening to begin proceedings as soon as possible.

He said one South Florida property manager, Tzadik Management, has filed about 30 eviction notices since April 1. However, their chief revenue officer Christina Alletto said the company is “not executing upon eviction judgments at this time, and has been working hand-in-hand with anyone affected by current events to find a solution."

Once evictions resume, Mobley expects a “huge number” to be served all at once.

And in many cases, landlords will come out the winners because Florida law requires tenants facing eviction to pay the rent they owe into the court registry to get a hearing for their case. If tenants can’t pay the court within just five days, "the landlord is entitled to an immediate default judgment for removal of the tenant.”

“This particular statute is probably why Florida is, in my opinion, dead last in tenant rights out of all 50 states,” Mobley said. “You could have a great defense, but you can’t present it unless you can pay upfront.''

The Legal Aid Society, along with other agencies, has proposed that DeSantis use his executive authority to temporarily waive the requirement to pay into the court registry so that more people can have their cases heard and suggested that landlords offer catch-up payment plans prior to filing evictions.

The Florida Housing Justice Alliance, a coalition of advocacy groups including Organize Florida, has asked counties and cities to require landlords receiving rental assistance to abstain from eviction proceedings and asked local leaders to enact emergency rent stabilization measures.

“In the end, these measures may not prevent the tenant from being evicted if they still lack the ability to pay the rent, but it would buy them a little more time to make a deal with the landlord or find alternative housing,” Mobley said.

Local aid available

Locally, counties and cities have tried to provide rental assistance, but programs have quickly been drained. In less than two weeks, Orange County closed applications and the emergency hotline for its program after receiving more than 20,000 applications.

With just $1.8 million budgeted for the program, it was originally set up to help 1,500 families. The day the rental assistance program launched, the county logged 100,000 calls from at least 11,000 callers.

Orange County recently approved a plan to spend about $36.5 million of the federal money it received from the CARES Act to help residents make rent and mortgage payments and pay utility and medical bills. The grants, which will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis, are capped at $1,000 per household and reserved for residents who have lost their jobs or had hours cut.

County staff acknowledged the $1,000 payments fall short of the area’s median rent, which hovers around $1,200, saying the program is designed to be a supplement to other state and federal aid.

The county plans to launch a special online portal by June 1 that can process 200 applications a day. For residents who apply and are approved, the county will pay their landlords or mortgage companies directly.

“As soon as we approve an application, we will prepare a letter of guarantee that will be sent to the apartment, to the landlord to let them know that funding is coming for a particular household. So that should help provide at least some level of comfort to the family as well as the landlord that the money’s coming from the county,” said deputy county administrator Randy Singh, adding that it will take about three weeks for money to be disbursed.

Volunteers from Organize Florida worry it still won’t be enough.