The tenants filed numerous complaints with code enforcement officials, who issued various citations for plumbing violations. Plumbers came out, but no repairs were evident. Instead, the landlord initiated legal proceedings to evict them.
In October, landlords filed 1,600 cases to evict. In December, they filed 1,532.
Simmons, 62, said the property was in better condition when he moved in, when an elderly couple owned it. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and anxiety, Perez said it can be hard to concentrate and understand what’s happening. Sometimes, when her PTSD is really bad, she can’t get out of bed.“I was just so happy to have a roof over my head,” Perez said.
Writing about his tenants, Shepherd said in a July tweet: “I don’t want to know them, don’t want them to know me.”“Definitely bought the ‘city is pouring in a ton of money’ bit,” he tweeted in August. “The area is still horrible.” That inability to afford market-rate housing puts tenants like those at 817 W. Poplar at fundamental odds with landlords, for whom real estate is a commodity, Lopez said.
When the moratorium ended in early September, the tenants received letters requesting that they leave by Sept. 30. None of them did.LaToya Graves sits on the front porch at 817 W. Poplar St., a fourplex where her stepfather, Gary Simmons, lived before he and his fellow tenants were forced to leave — some via eviction. Graves stayed there for a while and worried about her children’s health during that time.
Such stipulations make it hard for tenants to sue their landlord for repairs, Rollins said. For tenants who are behind on rent or do not properly request repairs, it’s nearly impossible to win. A citation Oct. 11, 2021, for plumbing violations, including “no hot water,” carried a $300 penalty. The notice set an administrative hearing date at Municipal Court in mid-November, for which the penalty if Shepherd did not appear would be $1,000 or less.
Neither Perez nor Simmons accepted the deal, so the property management company retained Kristopher Bowen, a real estate lawyer for commercial and residential landlords, on Shepherd’s behalf.Meanwhile, the tenants conferred with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which provides free civil legal services to southwest Texans but did not officially represent the Poplar tenants. Hallie Dunlap, a lawyer with Texas RioGrande, appeared at court only to offer advice.
At Perez’s next court appearance, which her partner, Cantu, attended, Bowen, Shepherd’s lawyer, conferred with them privately. Perez said she would not sign anything unless she received financial assistance to move and to pay a few months’ rent in a new place. Perez could not secure city assistance before her move-out date. To receive it, she had to submit a new lease. But in her anxiety, Perez couldn’t figure it out. When she returned to court for the last time, she was evicted in a few minutes and given two weeks to vacate.
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