Yesterday, I was the housing counselor at the Tenant Resource Center from 9 to noon. During that time, I had 9 people come in to the office. Here’s a snapshot of what’s going on out there in tenant/landlord world . . . and it’s not very pretty.
First of all, it was all tenants, which is odd, because about 10% of the people we serve are landlords and odds were high that at least one of them would be a landlord. However, here’s their stories:
TENANT ONE
For the third week in a row, I helped an black woman from the Raymond Road area who was looking for a 2 bedroom apartment that she could afford. So far, she’s not having any luck. She put on a happy face, but it was one of those clients that you could just tell has been under the stress of poverty for years. She took our list and went on her way, but I have a feeling she will be back again next week.
TENANT TWO
A white older gentleman (over 55) from the Allied Drive area came in because he’s being evicted over $200. He had a job at Walmart, but lost his job. His landlord was telling him if he didn’t pay this week, he’d have to be out immediately. I explained the eviction process and that the landlord has to give him a 5 day notice and if he doesn’t pay in 5 days, then the landlord has to take him to court and that only the judge can decide he has to leave and only the sheriff’s department can force him to. In other words, he has at least 5 days to come up with the money since the landlord hadn’t given him any notices yet. I gave him information about places that can help him pay his rent and had a little hope since he’s such a small amount behind in his rent and he was going to get his W-2 from his past employer and file his taxes right away. He was elated to find out the landlord couldn’t just throw him out. He was hopeful that his taxes might be able to help him pay his rent until he gets a new job.
TENANT THREE
A black woman who lived on the west side of town came in because the landlord refused to sign her Homestead Credit form for her taxes. And because she paid her rent in cash the landlord is claiming that she has unpaid rent after she moved out and won’t return her security deposit ($300). Luckily, the amount the landlord thinks she is behind (around $800) is the same amount of a money order which she kept a copy of and it was an odd number like $817! Most tenants don’t have that kind of documentation, but I’m not sure its going to be enough for her, but its better than nothing. The creepy thing about this landlord is that he won’t give anyone his last name, he wouldn’t sign her Homestead Credit form (unfortunately, nothing requires a landlord to sign it, but she can try sending in copies of her money orders) and wouldn’t give her receipts for her cash payments (illegal under state consumer protection laws).
TENANT FOUR
A latino guy from the State St. area who works at a local non-profit came in because his apartment was flooded when some pipes in the apartment above him froze and broke. He was new to Wisconsin having recently moved from Florida. He doesn’t have a thermostat to regulate the heat and if I understood correctly he has either a space heater or a heater that can either be off, or on. The landlord is now claiming that it is his partially his fault that the pipes froze because he didn’t keep his heat on when he wasn’t in the apartment. This, despite the fact that when he moved in, the landlord told him not to run his heat all the time because his electric bill would be too high. Luckily, he has renters insurance, but he wanted the landlord to pay the $250 deductible and reimburse him for the time that he couldn’t live in his apartment. Also, he had already signed a lease for next year and I explained to him how he should try to break that lease and the landlord should have to mitigate their damages and hopefully find a different tenant before August so that he wouldn’t have to pay any rent on that new lease.
TENANT FIVE
A black woman with a section 8 voucher came in because she had applied at 8 different apartments and had been denied at 8 different apartments. I asked her why and she told me a few of the reasons, and none of the landlords were using the same reasons to deny her, which seemed odd. Her section 8 voucher would cover about $1100 of her rent, so I found it odd that she was rejected at one place because she and her kids owed over $200 on her credit report. Another one denied her because she didn’t make over three times the amount of rent in income. This, despite the fact that a large majority of her rent would be paid by the Section 8 voucher. I had her have our staff at the Housing Help Desk write a letter to the landlord explaining the minimum income standards ordinance (it was a little complicated) and that she should show that she could pay a similar or higher amount of rent in the past. She has just a few days to find housing before she loses her voucher and I really wanted her to find a place! Sadly, I had to give her our “flexible landlord” list (worst euphemism ever!). And explain that some of these landlords are fine, but some have some serious issues with repairs and other landlord practices, but in order to keep her voucher, she might have to rent from one of these landlords for a year until she could find a new place.
TENANT SIX
A 69 year old older gentleman from the northside has a landlord that had been foreclosed on, but somehow had been able to get refinanced. She had come and pounded on his door at 4:30 am, drunk, to give him an eviction notice for $100. She also claimed he owed $675 in security deposit, even though he had been living there for 6 months and he thought they had a deal that because he cleaned up the apartment he didn’t need to pay it, and was evicting him for having two people living with him. The two people living with him was his daughter who had lost her job and a woman who is dying of cancer and has a very short time to live. He had a check for the $100 in his hands. I explained the eviction process, some problems with the notice she had given him, and the fact that his lease does say he can’t have guests without written permission of his landlord (which I believe violated the city’s guest policy law, but it was a close call). He only gets $810 per month in income and the two people living with him don’t have any income. I also sent him to the Housing Help Desk to have them help write a letter as it seemed that his reading and writing skills were a little weak and I didn’t have confidence that the letter would otherwise get written.
TENANT SEVEN
A older white woman (over 55) who was either mentally ill or being adversely affected by the medications she was on for pain who lived in a trailer park in the Town of Madison wanted to move. She owned her trailer by it was worth only a little over $2,000. She wanted to move and find a place that was more appropriate for her. She also had a bill that she felt the mobile home park owner was unfairly charging her. She had no lease but did at one time about 15 years ago. She only paid about $300 a month for rent and I believe was on SSI. It all got complicated very quickly, she was crying and I had people lined up so I also had to send her to the Housing Help Desk for more in depth help. However, I fear she really needed a case manager and that our help was going to be minimal and that she was going to continue living in an unsatisfactory situation.
TENANT EIGHT
A white guy with some sort of mental or cognitive disability came in and was looking for a housing list of affordable housing options in the City of Madison. He had a friend that was moving here and they could only afford to pay 30% of their income for their rent. I gave him the list he was looking for and then also gave him the list of Section 42 units, explaining that they weren’t as affordable, but they might be less expensive, maybe.
TENANT NINE
A black guy with a disability of some type was on section 8 and looking for a new place to live this summer but was starting now because he knew how hard it would be to find a new place to live. I explained that all landlords had to accept section 8 and gave him our weekly housing list and told him how to find it on line so he didn’t need to come to our office in the future.
5 of 9 of the people I helped were people of color, three were over 55, at least three had a disability of some type. About 6 were looking for better housing for themselves or friends. 2 or 3 involved people out of work and looking. 2 or 3 were struggling to stay where they are. This is just a three hour snap shot of what we see every day. It’s a side of Madison that many don’t see and often, don’t understand. It’s hard to look these folks in the eyes, give them the small amount of information that we have and hope that it helps. Each of these people I’m sure has a bigger story than I got in the few moments I spent with them and probably need more help than we can provide in the few moments we spend with them. The good news is that they were all grateful for the assistance that we gave them and the left knowing a little more information than when they came in so that they could make good decisions about how to proceed. I wish them luck!
